Energy, Utilities & Water  March 8, 2019

KUNC, NPR forum puts Greeley center stage in oil, gas debate

GREELEY — Greeley was at the epicenter of Colorado’s — and perhaps the nation’s — ongoing conversation about the future of energy production Thursday evening.

Greeley-based public radio station KUNC joined with Washington, D.C., National Public Radio affiliate WAMU to host a debate about Colorado’s oil and gas industry. The conversation will be part of a broadcast on that topic from the radio program 1A’s Across America project.

1A host Joshua Johnson was joined on a dais inside an auditorium at the University of Northern Colorado’s University Center by Colorado House Speaker KC Becker, D-Boulder, Liberty Oilfield Services Inc. CEO Chris Wright, middle-school teacher and Weld Air and Water co-founder Therese Gilbert, and KUNC energy and economy reporter Matt Bloom.

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Part of the purpose of 1A’s Across America project is to foster civil debates about important issues in areas of the country that are often overlooked by national media figures and politicians.

“We’re trying to lower the volume a little bit” on overly combative debates that have become commonplace in the country, Johnson told the crowd of hundreds, many of whom were oil and gas industry workers.

Thursday’s forum was held the same week that Colorado lawmakers advanced a bill that would alter drastically the way the oil and gas industry is regulated in the state.

SB19-181, sponsored in the Senate by Majority Leader Stephen Fenberg, D-Boulder, and recently approved by the Senate Finance Committee, 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. New limits on “forced pooling” and beefed up air-quality monitoring requirements would also be included.

Unsurprisingly SB19-181, which has come under fire from oil and gas industry representatives since it was introduced last week, was a hot topic during Thursday’s forum.

The COGCC’s mandate of fostering oil development is “heavily tilted toward the oil and gas industry,” Becker said. “ … We are just trying to right that tilt.”

Part of righting that tilt, she said, involves boosting local government’s control over drilling.

Gilbert applauded that notion, saying SB19-181 is “bringing the proper role of government back to this process.”

But in her opinion, the bill doesn’t go far enough to regulate the industry and ensure that negative impacts on health and the environment are mitigated. That’s because in places such as Weld County where the industry is thriving and popular, local governments will likely not choose to implement additional regulations.

Wright countered with a defense of the industry in which he argued that the environment has improved in recent decades, in part because of efforts from oil and gas companies.

“I share the concern for the health of families and the environment,” he said. “… Every day our industry is working to reduce our emissions.”

Proponents of SB19-181, as well as supporters of Proposition 112 — a ballot measure defeated by Colorado voters last year — are bringing forth a “primary message that oil and gas is dangerous,” Wright said. “ …The fear and anxiety is very unfortunate.”

Wright also questioned the speed at which SB19-181 was progressing through the Senate. This echoed a common refrain from industry leaders over the past week about the lack of opportunities for all stakeholders to provide input.

“In Colorado, we tend to be much more efficient,” Becker said, referring to the snail’s pace at which political decisions tend to occur in Washington.

Audience members were invited to ask questions of the panelists during the event, and several times Becker was asked whether she has contemplated the negative economic impacts of SB19-181 on oil-dependent regions such as Weld County.

“I have no interest in trying to destroy the industry,” she said, adding that much of the criticism leveled against the SB19-181 have been about the process of getting it approved rather than the substance of the bill.

While he stressed civility and open-minded debate, Johnson didn’t sugarcoat the importance of the oil and gas issue during Thursday’s forum.

“This is kind of an existential crisis from Colorado right now,” he said.

GREELEY — Greeley was at the epicenter of Colorado’s — and perhaps the nation’s — ongoing conversation about the future of energy production Thursday evening.

Greeley-based public radio station KUNC joined with Washington, D.C., National Public Radio affiliate WAMU to host a debate about Colorado’s oil and gas industry. The conversation will be part of a broadcast on that topic from the radio program 1A’s Across America project.

1A host Joshua Johnson was joined on a dais inside an auditorium at the University of Northern Colorado’s University Center by Colorado House Speaker KC Becker, D-Boulder, Liberty Oilfield Services Inc. CEO Chris Wright,…

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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