Committee votes to move oil, gas bill forward

DENVER —  The Colorado Senate Transportation and Energy Committee will advance a bill that would overhaul the way the state’s oil and gas industry is regulated.

The vote, which passed 4-3 and came after a marathon 12-hour hearing Tuesday, split the committee down party lines, with Democrats in favor of SB19-181 and Republicans opposed. It now moves to the Senate Finance Committee for consideration.

The bill, sponsored in the Senate by Majority Leader Stephen Fenberg, D-Boulder, seeks to shift the makeup and mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from a group tasked with fostering oil and gas development to a group focused on regulating the industry. The bill would also give local government more power to enforce land-use and zoning rules, as well as increased setback requirements. New limits on “forced pooling” and beefed up air quality monitoring requirements would also be included.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Select your Republic Services residential cart now!

In preparation for Republic Services becoming the primary provider of residential recycling, yard trimmings, and trash, residents should now select the best cart size and service schedule for their household needs.

“This bill is about one thing: creating a clear, modernized, and common sense framework to allow the oil and gas industry to continue to do business in the state of Colorado, but not at the expense of people’s health and safety,” Fenberg said in a statement released early Wednesday morning after committee vote. “I received a lot of input from Coloradans prior to the bill introduction and we’ll continue to work with anyone interested in improving this bill throughout the upcoming committee hearings.”

SB19-181 has come under heavy fire from oil and gas industry groups since Fenberg and House Speaker KC Becker, D-Boulder announced in late February their intent to bring forward the new regulations.

The bill is “directly threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs, billions of dollars of state revenue, and hundreds of millions in education funding,” according to a statement from the Colorado Petroleum Council. Opponents of SB19-181 have also argued the bill is being fast-tracked through the Colorado General Assembly without enough input from stakeholders.

“Not only is this bad policy and a gross overreach by bill sponsors in every aspect, but the process by which this bill has been shoved through the legislature signals to Colorado that this leadership has little regard for those impacted by their bad policy,” Tracee Bentley, executive director of the Colorado Petroleum Council, said in statement early Wednesday morning. “We are still hopeful that the sponsors of the bill and [Gov. Jared] Polis’ office will slow down this process and listen to as much stakeholder input as is needed, proven by the stakeholders who tonight expressed strong concern with their lack of input on the bill.”