After months of campaign criticism of a sweeping set of 2- year-old restrictions on oil and gas drilling, talk of repealing the regulations or reopening the rulemaking process appears to have fizzled.
Meanwhile, environmentalists and oil and gas producers both are optimistic Gov.-elect John Hickenlooper will listen to their concerns about changing the regulations.
Tisha Schuller, president and chief executive of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, which has tried to overturn the rules in court in a lawsuit that is still pending, says her group wants to cooperate with the incoming governor and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
“The rules are in place,” Schuller said. “Our job now is to work within the framework of those rules.”
Her comments echo those of Stan Dempsey, president of the Colorado Petroleum Association, who has said they are not seeking to repeal the rules.
“We’re taking a positive approach to making rules work,” Dempsey said. “When issues come up, we discuss them. We all want timely and effective issuance of permits.”
The rules imposed a number of new requirements on drilling, including efforts to control odors, not disturb wildlife, and extra safeguards against toxic spills and contamination of groundwater.
The man who will become governor in January, himself a former geologist for the energy industry, says there’s no clamor for a rewrite.
“Most of the senior executives I’ve talked to in the oil and gas industry don’t want to reopen the whole process,” Hickenlooper said earlier this month. “There are improvements that could come before the commission, but what they need is certainty. They’re making capital investment decisions.”
At times during his campaign, Hickenlooperwas critical of the rules. The regulations were backed by fellow Democrat, Gov. Bill Ritter but roundly criticized by Republicans as so restrictive that they were driving oil and gas producers away from Colorado.
In a speech to the South Metro Chamber of Commerce in March, Hickenlooper said industry concerns were not fully considered in the new rules.
“What happened was, the environmentalists went way overboard, I think, and pushed very hard — I shouldn’t say overboard, I’ll get myself in trouble — but they pushed very hard for certain things they thought were very important,” he said.
Those comments angered Ritter, who called it “a pretty bad mischaracterization” of the process.
Hickenlooper has since managed to walk a tightrope with both sides, leaving industry leaders and environmental groups believing he is open to their concerns.
Republicans have now regained the state House for the first time in six years, but even incoming House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, isn’t calling for a complete overhaul of the rules.”To the extent that we can find common ground with Gov.-elect Hickenlooper . . . that make(s) Colorado a better place to do business, we’ll find that common ground,” he said.
