Boulder rolls back oil and gas moratorium, adopts new regs

BOULDER — Boulder’s oil and gas activity moratorium, versions of which had been in place since 2013, has been rescinded, as the Boulder City Council adopted new rules Tuesday to regulate drilling and extraction activities. 

Should Colorado law allow for an outright ban on energy activity, Boulder would likely explore that possibility. Since such bans are themselves banned by the state, Boulder officials sought an emergency ordinance to adopt new rules that limit where operations can take place — effectively limiting oil and gas activity to a handful of small parcels.

Oil and gas operators now have to provide a series of applications and an alternative site analysis. The cost of an application is $3,680 plus additional fees.

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Operators have to hold neighborhood meetings in impacted areas and are permitted to operate only in industrial, manufacturing and agricultural zones. 

“In some cases, an applicant may need to do geophysical exploration or seismic testing to

see if a site is suitable for a potential oil and gas operation,” according to a city memo.

The Planning Board is the decision-making authority on applications, and the Boulder City Council has the option to call up projects for additional review. 

Setback requirements are to be 2,000 feet from any residential dwelling, school or licensed childcare facility. That distance would increase to 2,500 feet for multi-well pads.

“With the 2,000-foot setback, very few properties in the city limits are eligible for oil and

gas operations under the COGCC standards,” according to a city memo. “… There are properties owned by IBM, agricultural land in the flagpole that connects Gunbarrel to the rest of the city and the city-owned land in Gunbarrel that could be eligible as well as some properties in the Flatirons Business Park off 55th Street.”

Boulder’s regulations largely align with those adopted in other nearby jurisdictions, including in Boulder County.

The county “did a great job of adopting extremely robust regulations,” Elizabeth Paranhos, an attorney who helped advise the city during the crafting of its regulations, said Tuesday. 

Still, members of the Boulder City Council stressed the desire to make oil and gas regulations as strict as possible.

Councilman Mark Wallach said his preference is to “to see how far the envelope can be pushed” before the city bumps into legal challenges for would-be operators. 

“While we appreciate the city implementing regulations after an eight-year moratorium, we are disappointed with the lack of outreach to industry during the process,” American Petroleum Institute Colorado associate director Alejandra Major said. 

In addition to the new rules for operations, the Boulder City Council also implemented a tax on oil and gas activity approved by city voters in 2018.

The tax applies a charge of up to $6.90 per barrel of oil and up to $0.88 per thousand cubic feet of natural gas for oil or gas extracted within the city limits. 

“With regard to the oil and pollution tax, we note the recommendation to tax at the full amount is a significant concern when coupled with the proposed fees and costs in these regulations. We believe fees need to be reasonable and considered within the broader context,” Major said.