During an appearance on a radio show yesterday, Republican congressional candidate Barbara Kirkmeyer made false claims about an oil and gas field in Colorado, claiming that her opponent, state Rep. Yadira Caraveo (D-Thornton), and Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) are responsible for a lack of production.
With a week until Election Day, the Colorado state Senate is looking like the Republican Party’s best chance to gain control of any part of Colorado government, as the Democratic Party is expected to retain the Governor’s office and keep its majority in the House of Representatives. Redistricting after the 2020 census benefitted Republicans in state Senate races, according to members of both parties.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), Colorado’s state agency for regulating oil and gas production, announced earlier this month that it is pushing back the deadline for companies (or operators) to submit a plan that’s intended to prevent abandoned oil and gas wells from needing to be plugged by the state if the company goes bankrupt.
Residents of Aurora, along with environmental advocacy groups, are claiming that a proposed oil and gas development plan ignores pollution already existing in the area and that the plan should be denied by the state’s regulatory agency, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC).
Colorado’s ozone problem is only getting worse and Colorado’s leaders should be doing more to address the problem. Colorado has been downgraded by the EPA from a ‘serious’ to a ‘severe’ ozone nonattainment status. The Colorado Department of Public Health (CDPHE) is telling us to drive less to solve the problem, yet oil and gas operations cause far more ozone pollution than driving cars. Gov. Polis, the Air Quality Control Commission, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission should hold the oil and gas industry accountable and stop fossil fuel production, especially during ozone season when ground-level ozone levels are highest.
Yesterday 40 environmental advocacy groups delivered a joint letter opposing the construction of an oil pipeline from Suncor, a Canadian energy company that operates the Commerce City Refinery. The refinery is the only oil refinery in Colorado.
Six Colorado environmental advocacy groups, who say they represent over 100,000 Coloradans impacted by climate change and air pollution, petitioned the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) — the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency — last week to create formal rules protecting the public from the cumulative impacts of oil and gas production.
Yesterday, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), a wide-ranging bill that, among other things, aims to cut 40% of U.S. CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 2030.
Earlier this month, a coalition of environmental advocacy groups asked Colorado’s air quality regulatory agencies to deny a proposed air pollution permit submitted by Suncor Energy for its petroleum refinery located in Commerce City, north of Denver. The groups argued that the permit does not adequately ensure a decrease in pollution from the embattled refinery.
In Colorado, a sale of 110 low-producing oil wells illustrates a hot potato effect, and how funding remediation eventually comes from the public.
