Trio of legal actions a mixed bag for energy in Boulder County

BOULDER COUNTY — A flurry of legal activity regarding oil-and-gas operations in Boulder County on Monday produced mixed results in the broader ongoing battle between the industry’s opponents and proponents.

Extraction, Boulder County reach settlement over planned east-county development

Boulder County and Denver-based Extraction Oil & Gas Inc. (Nasdaq: XOG) reached a cease-fire over the latter’s efforts to drill several wells on property in Weld County on which Boulder County claims that it has a conservation easement.

In a statement Tuesday, the county said it and Extraction agreed to halt the drilling and ask the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for an extension of its approval to drill on the site farther than the original January 2021 expiration date. That agreement will stay in place until the ongoing litigation in the Colorado Court of Appeals is settled.

Boulder County filed a motion in Extraction’s ongoing bankruptcy case last week, seeking to secure emergency permissions to file for an injunction at the state level. Companies generally have protection from new legal claims while in bankruptcy.

The two sides were previously scheduled to have a hearing on that request on Thursday.

Lafayette extends moratorium through May 2021

Lafayette has extended its ban on new oil and gas drilling through the end of next May, with the city council voting unanimously to extend the moratorium in its Tuesday meeting.

The southeast Boulder County city has enforced a moratorium on new drilling since last September after the passage of Senate Bill 181. Several cities in the area have enacted similar stops to activity, saying it’s necessary to stop drilling while it creates its own municipal-level rules or waits for a final set of new rules from the COGCC’s months-long revamp of the state’s regulatory environment.

In a statement, American Petroleum Institute Colorado executive director Lynn Granger said the city’s decision and similar votes across the state are a threat to Colorado’s economic recovery.

“By kicking the can further down the road, Lafayette’s government appears increasingly committed to excluding our industry from the city,” she said.

State judge again strikes down Longmont fracking ban

In an order filed Sunday afternoon, District Judge Judith Labuda dismissed the plaintiffs’ argument that a fracking ban enacted as approved by Longmont voters in 2012 was now enforceable under SB 181. That ban was struck down by the Colorado Supreme Court in 2016.

Labuda deferred to the Supreme Court’s prior reasoning that the state’s interest in uniformly regulating the energy industry pre-empted the interests of the local government.

Colorado Rising for Communities, an anti-drilling group that filed the suit on behalf of two local environmental groups, said it intends to appeal.

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