Oil & Gas rules

The Oil & Gas Association is still whining, the Colorado Environmental Coalition believes they are good starting point. The Denver Post reports,

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association, an industry trade group, said Monday it remains "extremely concerned about the draft rules."

"It appears that we have traded one set of concerns for another," said Meg Collins, president of the association, in a statement. "Many of our initially stated concerns remain in the draft rules, but in a different form."

Environmental groups — while expressing support for the proposal — said they want the panel to go further.

"There definitely does need to be some strengthening and improvement," said Elise Jones, the executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. "But this is a good place to start the discussion."

The truth is the regulations had to come into line with new environmental laws passed by the legislature and signed by the governor last year. After 8 years of a Republican governor and mostly Republican legislature the oil and gas industry is going through some growing pains. The environment now matters, the concerns of hunters and western slope residents matter.

It is possible to over-regulate and over-tax an industry to the point of driving the industry away or impacting profits severely. With oil and gas though the business has to be located where the resources are. So long as there is oil and gas in this state the industry will remain and the threats of industry will remain, essentially, idle ones. Colorado has traditionally under regulated and under taxed the oil and gas industry in this state. There's no reason to be punitive in our approach but it's time we make sure the environment is protected and the state is receiving a fair share of revenue.