Arapahoe County proposed Oil and Gas Zoning recently rejected

Colorado Attorney General’s Letter to Arapahoe - pdf

Note: Arapahoe’s proposed regs are 19 pages long.  Elbert County’s proposed regs run 60 pages.

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The Board of Elbert County Commissioners met in a regularly scheduled meeting on September 28th, 2011: Excerpt-

Commissioner Shipper moved to approve and execute Engagement agreement between Elbert County and the law firm of Murray, Dahl, Cougenmiester and Renaud LLP regarding provision of certain special counsel service to Elbert County regarding the draft of the Elbert County Oil and Gas Regulations.

Commissioner Schwab commented on a concern, the State can overrule County Regulations and would not want to be put in this position. The only way to avoid this is to have someone with oil and gas experience review these regulations, that is reason the Board is entering into this Agreement with Murray, Dahl, Cougenmiester and Renaud LLP.

Commissioner Schwab seconded the motion, passed.

Perhaps the Elbert County BOCC should get their money back on this contract….

and consider whether we need a czar of anything around here.

COGCC, Gunnison County approve MOU

“The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Gunnison County have approved a memorandum of understanding that memorializes the intent of both parties to work together on regulatory matters related to oil and gas development. This MOU, the first of its kind between the Commission and a county government, was approved Oct. 31, 2011.

The MOU follows several meetings between Commission staff and county officials and represents a cooperative approach designed to clarify and coordinate the regulation of oil and gas operations in a way that assists the state and provides assurance to the county and its residents that industry activity is protective of public health and the environment.”

MOU Between the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Gunnison County

Let’s see how many instances of regulatory duplication you can find in the proposed Elbert County Oil and Gas Regulations, and regulations already enforced by the COGCC at the state level:

Draft Oil and Gas Regulations for Elbert County, 12-27-2011 Version

Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission - Cross Reference

Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission - Rules and Regulations Table of Contents

(See the RULES heading at http://cogcc.state.co.us/ for detailed rule text.)

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Should there be any duplication of regulation between Elbert County and Colorado?  No.

Should a county with tight budgetary constraints that has had to materially cut back work hours and numbers of personnel be taking on duplicative regulatory functions already addressed by the State of Colorado?  No.

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Elbert County can ill afford an oil and gas regulatory empire headed by a czar of Community and Development Services.

I hope that the one-year performance review of the Jail Based Behavioral Health Service program contains outcome data that links program expenditures to actual reductions in recidivism and hospitalization rates in the target population.  The good intentions surrounding social services programs make them politically attractive to theorize about and establish, however, their success tends to be measured by growth in the target population served, when a better measurement would be how much the size of the target population has been reduced by the program.