Another voting game between Colorado environmental groups and the oil and gas industry has been canceled, top Democrats announced at the state Capitol on Monday.
For the third time in a decade, both sides of Colorado’s long-running oil and gas wars have mutually agreed to remove sets of competing initiatives scheduled for the November ballot, avoiding what the governor of Colorado’s Jared Polis called it “expensive, risky and divisive.” is fighting in November over whether the state should ban restrictions on natural gas, make it easier to sue drillers for health and safety violations, and more.
The deal also means Democrats will abandon a series of legislative proposals targeting ozone pollution from the oil and gas sector. Instead, industry and environmental groups agreed to approve a set of air quality policies centered on a new per-barrel tax on oil and gas production, which will be used to fund public transportation and restoration of wildlife habitats.
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“This proposal is a thoughtful agreement between environmental advocates and oil and gas producers on the path forward on air quality, ozone reduction and climate goals,” he said. Polis said at a press conference Monday afternoon. “It’s better to find a way to work together, to get a result that everyone can live with and move the ball down the field to achieve our goals.”
For decades, a nine-county region in and around the Denver metro area has failed to meet Environmental Protection Agency health standards for ozone, a dangerous air pollutant linked to a wide variety of problems health. Major local contributors to the region’s ozone problem, which peaks during the summer months, include oil and gas operations, gasoline-powered vehicles, lawn equipment and other industrial sources.
Under the proposal announced Monday, the new tax on oil and gas production will “fluctuate” based on commodity prices, said Senate President Steve Fenberg, a Democrat from Boulder. Estimates based on average prices from recent years show that this would generate about $138 million per year. Of that total, 80 percent would be used for transit and rail spending, while the rest would fund conservation and restoration projects aimed at offsetting the negative impacts of oil and gas production.
“Transportation is a very big source of emissions and our ozone problem, especially along the Front Range,” Fenberg said. “It’s really important that we invest more in diversifying public transit options. »
The two upcoming clean air bills would also codify into law a mandate for oil and gas producers to reduce emissions of so-called ozone precursors, which Polis released for the first time in a decree last year; adopt measures to resolve the problem of orphan wells; and demand what House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Democrat from Dillon, called “greater transparency” and public outreach by the Energy and Carbon Management Commission, the state’s regulatory agency. State that regulates drilling.
“I am deeply proud of the number of hours people have dedicated to listening to each other, solving difficult problems and proposing policy that will truly have a meaningful impact on Colorado’s future,” said McCluskie.
Oil and gas wars
It’s been 10 years since Polis, then a congressman representing Boulder, championed and financed two 2014 ballot measures backed by environmentalists who denounced pollution and other negative impacts caused by the state’s fracking boom. Industry groups responded with their own high-stakes proposals. Both sets of initiatives were ultimately withdrawn in a deal brokered by the government of the day. John Hickenlooper, embittered progressive environmental activists who accused Polis of treason.
After five years of stalemate, the Legislature’s Democratic and Democratic majorities in 2019 succeeded in passing Senate Bill 19-181, which strengthens health and safety laws and gives local governments more power to regulate drilling within their borders. Citing the need to “give SB-181 a chance to work,” Polis announced the following year that he had brokered another agreement between leading industry groups and environmental organizations to withdraw, and that he “would actively oppose ballot initiatives related to oil and the environment.” gas extraction in 2020 and 2022 on both sides.
The deal announced Monday will keep that truce in place for at least one more election cycle. Echoing Polis’ comments following the passage of SB-181, the governor’s office said in a press release Monday that the state “will need time to implement the new agreed-upon policies and make the investments.” . State officials said they are working to bring the state into compliance with EPA ozone standards by 2027.
According to Polis’ office, parties to the deal include Occidental Petroleum, Civitas Resources and Chevron, the three producers that dominate Colorado’s oil and gas industry, as well as environmental groups Earthjustice, Conservation Colorado, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project , GreenLatinos and Western Resource. The defenders.
The 2024 ballot measures sponsored by the oil and gas industry included constitutional protections for “energy choice,” which would have prohibited state and local governments from restricting the use of natural gas in homes and businesses and ban sources of pollution such as gas-fired lawns and gardens. equipment.
The environmentalist-backed initiatives, filed last month, would have held oil and gas companies strictly liable for damages and created a private right of action to enforce environmental regulations. And the parts of the Democratic ozone legislation that have drawn the strongest resistance from industry groups, including a summer pause on drilling and fracking and a crackdown on “repeated violators” of the rules on ozone air quality, are not included in the compromise legislation announced Monday.
“We have said for years that providing regulatory and legislative certainty to business owners and operators across the state and ensuring the stability of a vital industry is of the utmost importance. We are pleased to see that the governor agrees,” Kait Schwartz, director of the Colorado chapter of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement. “Our industry’s regulatory landscape has been completely overhauled over the past five years and it is crucial that these regulations, some of which have only just been implemented, are given a chance to work.”
“We support this legislation as a very important step forward in addressing Colorado’s serious air quality challenges, providing more public transportation opportunities, and protecting lands and wildlife,” said Kelly Nordini , CEO of Conservation Colorado. “We appreciate the work of the Governor, legislative leadership and sponsors to avoid potentially devastating ballot measures that could have rolled back a decade of climate progress in Colorado. »
The legislative session ends May 8.
Newsline’s Sara Wilson contributed to this report.
