2017 Colorado State Legislative Session Ends
Oil and Gas Industry Recap
Colorado’s legislature ended the first Regular Session of its 71st General Assembly on May 11, 2017, at midnight. The 2017 session changed little for the Oil and Gas industry. The session pitted citizens favoring increased restrictions on developers against an industry favoring increased restrictions on citizens. Neither won their points, and all of the bills either died without a floor vote, or failed on party lines.
- SB17–301, “Concerning energy-related statutes,” was sponsored by Republican industry supporters Senators Ray Scott and Vicki Marble and Representative Lori Saine. Discussion of this bill continued until the final moments of the session, where it ended without a vote. The Legislature’s inability to act will have a direct impact on the Colorado Energy Office, which has lost its funding for the upcoming fiscal year. A provision changing the CEO’s primary mission to rescuing the coal industry was one major sticking point preventing passage of the bill. This conclusion to the session typified the fate of Oil and Gas regulation generally in the divided legislature.
- SB17–035, “Tampering with Oil and Gas Equipment”, would have increased the penalty for interfering with “oil and gas gathering operations” from a class 2 misdemeanor to a class 6 felony. As originally proposed, even slowing traffic at a drilling site would have become a felony, though that language was removed in later drafts. An overflow crowd of citizen lobbyists waited to oppose SB17–035, arguing it would prevent exercise of their First Amendment Rights. While SB17–035 passed the Senate on a party-line vote, the House assigned the bill to the State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee, where it was postponed indefinitely.
- Representative Mike Foote’s HB17–1256, “Oil and Gas Facilities Distance from School Property,” also failed. Under current rules, oil and gas companies must allow a 1000-foot setback of drilling equipment to be measured from the door of a school building; however, as school property often extends 1000 feet or more from that door, a well can in fact be sited immediately adjacent a playground or sports field. After many hours of citizen testimony in support of the bill, HB17–1256 died in the Senate on a party-line vote.
- On April 17 a cut natural gas flowline near a Firestone home caused an explosion that killed two people and injured a third. An emergency bill introduced by Rep. Mike Foote to require flowline mapping also failed on a party line vote. Governor John Hickenlooper issued an executive order requiring flowlines within 1000 feet of residences to be inspected, but the order does not require disclosing flowline locations.
In related developments
A private citizen, Sarah Hall Mann, has filed a complaint with Colorado’s Independent Ethics Commission, stating that an informational event about Oil and Gas Industry practice hosted by Senator Vicki Marble was paid for by fossil fuel developer Extraction Oil & Gas. Marble’s quarterly officeholder’s report of gifts and honoraria, filed with the Secretary of State, states that she received no reportable benefits.
Originally published in The Weathervane No 1 on May 24, 2017. [Subscribe]
