Rejecting a final effort by state Republicans, Colorado Senate Democrats Tuesday affirmed the state’s revised natural gas and oil drilling regulations. The rules are scheduled to take effect beginning next week.

After legislation was approved by the Colorado General Assembly in 2007 — when the drilling boom was well under way — the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) completed an overhaul of the regulations late last year (see Daily GPI, Dec. 10, 2008). The state’s Democratically controlled House affirmed the rules package earlier this month (see Daily GPI, March 16).

In its last ditch attempt to stall their implementation, Senate GOP leadership appealed for moderation and asked members to consider the state’s slumping economy before giving their final approval to the rules package.

“They harm the economy, they cost jobs,” State Sen. Greg Brophy (R-Wray) said in floor debate Tuesday morning.

Senate Republican leader Josh Penry offered a compromise amendment, which would have tripled penalties on drillers for environmental violations such as excessive noise and odor; it also would have streamlined the permitting process. Penry said Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, who strongly supported the rules changes, “could get 90% of what he wants, plus some things he didn’t ask for.” Without some changes, the rules “will make a bad situation worse” and “will kill jobs,” said Penry.

Democrats voted unanimously against Penry’s proposal and shot down all attempts to scuttle the controversial package.

State Sen. Jennifer Viega (D-Denver), one of the bill’s sponsors, said the Senate’s authority for the rules authorization was mostly procedural. The Senate, she said, was not supposed to consider whether the rules would adversely impact jobs — a claim that drew a scathing response from the GOP.

“I have a sneaking suspicion [that] if people were losing their jobs en masse in your district the way they are in mine, you’d want to discuss the economic implications,” Penry said. Penry’s district covers parts of the Western Slope, where most of the gas drilling boom has occurred.

The 177-page rules package revises 108 sections of Colorado’s energy regulations. Many of the revisions are minor, but one section, opposed by producers operating in the state, will require producers to obtain consent from landowners on wildlife conditions before they are allowed to drill. If the landowners refuse consent to drill, the COGCC director would have the authority to either issue or withhold a drilling permit.

To view the rules package, visit https://cogcc.state.co.us/, click on “Final Amended Rules” and then “COGCC Amended Rules.”

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