Colorado boasts of the most tightly regulated, cleanest, and safest oil and gas industry in the nation.
Nevertheless, Democrats in the state legislature have proposed several bills that would have catastrophic consequences for the Colorado economy, destroy vast numbers of jobs, and — contrary to false, misleading claims by proponents — would do little to reduce greenhouse gases, and may even increase emissions.
Colorado’s crude oil industry is the fourth largest in the nation and the eighth largest in the production of natural gas. Oil and natural gas production is nearly 90% of the state’s total mineral and energy production value and ranks behind only agriculture, retail trade, and information among the leading industries in Colorado’s total economy. A recent economic study concluded that the oil and gas industry supports 303,730 direct and indirect jobs in our state. This is an economic treasure we should embrace, foster, and nurture rather than discourage and destroy.
But these common-sense economics do not matter to the radical left.
Democrats in the state Senate have already advanced Senate Bill 165, which will halt oil and gas production for three prime construction summer months every year, June, July, and August. When added to already existing restrictions on drilling operations during wildlife migratory periods, the industry would be forced into a start-stop-start-stop impractical production cycle with the impossible conundrum of assembling and maintaining a highly skilled workforce without the prospect of sustained employment.
But, then, “impossible” and “impractical” are exactly the conditions the anti-oil and gas crowd want to impose on the industry. Former Gov. John Hickenlooper boasted of imposing “the toughest emissions laws in the country.” But, the anti-oil and gas radicals really don’t just want a clean and safe industry, they want to regulate it out of existence entirely.
To the onerous regulations already in place, another proposed bill, Senate Bill 166, would create additional new categories for violators – a kind of “Mortal Sin” infraction level. The current maximum penalty assessment threshold of $300 per day would be increased to $53,000 per day – a 17,666% increase! It also invites more litigation by relaxing requirements for activists’ lawsuits.
If the Democrats can’t outright ban the permitting of oil and gas development, then they will do everything imaginable to delay, deny, and discourage it.
That’s the playbook California has used for decades, and House Bill 1330 is the Colorado incarnation of all the ill-conceived public policy the once Golden State has implemented in its endless quest of economic self-destruction.
This bill complicates and compounds the existing mountain of regulations into an oil and gas Gordian Knot permitting process. In 2021, it took an average of 319 days for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to issue an air permit. With all the additional hurdles to jump through by 2023 the permitting process more than doubled to 647 days. If this proposed additional legislation were to become law, the backlogs and delays would further worsen to “don’t-even-think-about-it” – which is exactly what the radicals want to impose on the industry.
Thankfully, the worst of this batch of wrongheaded proposals, Senate Bill 159, was killed with the help of two Democrats in the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on March 28. That bill called for a phased-in complete ban on oil and gas well permitting within five years. Analysis by the non-partisan Common Sense Institute found 181,800 jobs supported by the oil and gas industry would have been destroyed. Further, $321 billion of economic activity would disappear, and a $48 billion hole would be blown in state and local government revenue crippling critical funding for schools, police, fire and emergency services.
These are some, though not all of the nefarious legislative concoctions floating around beneath the gold dome, and they are examples of the onslaught the industry has endured each session in recent years.
Time is money, as the economic truism goes, and it certainly applies to the oil and gas industry. Delays in permitting, roadblocks to drilling, and the time and cost of regulation add to the challenge of attempting to do business in Colorado. Since Colorado’s resources are plentiful and of high quality, the industry will tolerate some degree of “pain” for a shot at the “gain.” But, there are limits. And, there will be a point when investors reach their limit of the “we-are-not-welcome-here” message that the Democrats and their radical left base perpetually send.
Whether by legislating an outright ban on oil and gas, or regulating it to death, these radicals aim to destroy an entire industry that is critical to our state all in the name of saving the planet from climate change. Yet, Gov. Jared Polis’ own Colorado Energy Office – which has never been characterized as “fossil fuel friendly” – concluded that a ban on permitting “would hurt consumers, not meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and would export pollution to outside of Colorado. If it were implemented at a large enough scale to have a meaningful impact, it would drive up the cost of living for the many Coloradans who can’t yet afford to make the switch to cleaner alternatives.”
Another thorough analysis of EPA data concluded that because a permitting ban would redirect oil and gas production to other states, “CO2e emissions would increase by 909,790 metric tonnes from the production alone.” That does not include any emission increases from having to transport more fuel into the state.
Given the propensity of the Democrat legislature to further tighten the regulatory screws, one might think the industry must be in some kind of major non-compliance. Not so! In fact, the recently produced Colorado Energy Office report, GHG Roadmap 2.0 states, “the oil and gas sector in Colorado is exceeding its GHG reduction targets compared to other sectors.”
Notably, oil and gas companies have reduced emissions along Colorado’s Front Range by more than 50% within the last decade. This is the kind of progress we should be celebrating, not penalizing.
The radical ideas promoted by Democrats in the state legislature will increase costs, reduce economic activity, kill jobs, harm local industry, reduce tax income to the state and local governments, harm the working class, increase our dependence on foreign energy sources, thus undermining America’s national security.
It’s all so very wrong. And, it must be defeated.
Bob Beauprez is a former member of Congress from Colorado, and currently operates a family bison breeding ranch in Jackson County.
Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.
