Boulder

Sparks flew Friday between activist Boulder County and Colorado Attorney General (AG) Cynthia Coffman over the county’s refusal to follow Coffman’s directive to lift a moratorium on oil and natural gas drilling.

The majority of Colorado’s anti-oil and natural gas activism is driven from outside of the state and is concentrated in the Denver metropolitan area, along with two nearby counties, Boulder and Larimer, according to an analysis completed by pro-energy industry group Protecting Colorado’s Economy, Environment and Energy Independence (Protect Colorado).

Reacting to a recent Colorado Supreme Court ruling, Boulder County commissioners on Thursday imposed a new six-month moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) after lifting a four-year prohibition that had been in place for unincorporated portions of the county. The ban will last through Nov. 18.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) on Tuesday filed lawsuits against two of four cities that last month passed initiatives banning drilling, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), in their local jurisdictions (see Shale Daily, Nov. 18).

Xcel Energy on Friday was hoping a week of heavy rains would subside and allow its utility crews to restore service in various areas west and north of metropolitan Denver on Colorado’s Front Range where there was a lot of flooding, inaccessible areas and exposed distribution pipelines.

Colorado’s top oil and natural gas regulator told executives in Denver Tuesday that adopting a culture in the onshore that goes above and beyond what’s legally required will do more than anything to achieve community acceptance.

In the midst of two lawsuits filed by Colorado officials against locally passed oil and natural gas drilling rules, Longmont, CO, gained some support Thursday when the Sierra Club and Earthworks’ attorneys filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to invalidate an ordinance passed last year.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) late Monday filed a lawsuit in a county district court seeking to invalidate the city of Longmont’s ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) within its city limits. COGA told the court the resolution essentially is a ban on oil/natural gas drilling.

Using Colorado as its example, a Boulder, CO-based nonprofit law and conservation group, added its two cents to the growing list of advocate-sponsored studies of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), concluding there are definite impacts on water supplies and the communities they serve from the widespread use of the oil/gas drilling technology.