{"id":2753,"date":"2012-01-18T12:27:16","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T19:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2012\/01\/18\/elbert-county-next\/"},"modified":"2012-01-19T13:11:12","modified_gmt":"2012-01-19T20:11:12","slug":"elbert-county-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2012\/01\/elbert-county-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Elbert County next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Text of letter: AG letter to El Paso County of 1-10-2012<\/a><\/h3>\n

Attorney General warns El Paso County on proposed oil and gas regs<\/a><\/h3>\n

ANDREW WINEKE<\/a><\/p>\n

2012-01-17 16:26:51<\/p>\n

<\/a>The Attorney General\u2019s Office last week sent a letter warning El Paso County that its proposed oil and gas drilling regulations conflicted with state regulations.<\/p>\n

The letter, dated Jan. 10, cited proposed rules on setbacks, excavations, water quality, wildlife, visual and noise impacts and permitting that it argued are in the purview of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe county should reject the proposed rules discussed above as being in operational conflict with the (oil and gas commission\u2019s) regulatory regime,\u201d the letter concluded. \u201cThe county should reject the proposed rules discussed above for the additional reason that exhaustive local regulations are unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed rules were unanimously adopted by the El Paso County Planning Commission Jan. 3 and are scheduled to be considered by the Board of County Commissioners Jan. 31. It\u2019s a hot topic for the county, since last year Houston-based Ultra Resources applied for several permits to drill in unincorporated El Paso County and Banning Lewis Ranch inside Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

Dave Neslin, director of the state oil and gas commission, said that forcing drillers to navigate a thicket of rules from local governments is not in the state\u2019s best interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cOil and gas activity occurs in approximately half of the state\u2019s 64 counties and in dozens of cities and towns across the state,\u201d Neslin said. \u201cIf each local jurisdiction adopts its own regulatory regime, the state will be left with a patchwork quilt of regulation that is inconsistent with the public interest and will unnecessarily impede the development of our energy resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amy Lathen, chairwoman of the El Paso County Commission, said the commissioners already have concerns over the proposed regulations and have discussed potential conflicts with county staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely going to look into the draft more,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lathen said one area that is clearly the county\u2019s responsibility is dealing with the impact drilling would have on local roads and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those roads are owned by the county taxpayers,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you take 1,000 truck trips to put up one well, how are you going to mitigate that impact?\u201d<\/p>\n

Potential conflicts between local and state regulations were an important consideration in forming the proposed regulations, said Craig Dossey, project manager for El Paso County. It\u2019s not always clear if a rule falls under land use, which would be the county\u2019s responsibility, or covers the technical aspects of drilling, which would be under the state\u2019s authority, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not cut and dried,\u201d Dossey said. \u201cIt\u2019s not as clear as the industry, certainly, would like to portray it as being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dossey said that the county plans to move ahead with the draft regulations as written, since any change would require going back through the planning commission process.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we\u2019re going to move forward with what we have,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the board decides at that point they want to change it, then that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do.\u201d<\/p>\n

El Paso County spokesman Dave Rose said that if the county commissioners do not adopt the proposed regulations that the existing temporary land use permit process for oil and gas drilling will probably govern future exploration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the board does not approve regulations at this time, the existing temporary land use permit for exploration will likely remain in effect and new applications for exploratory drilling would be reviewed through that process,\u201d he said in an e-mail.<\/p>\n

Tisha Conoly Schuller, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, an industry trade group, said there are opportunities for local governments to address their concerns through the state\u2019s regulatory process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of misinformation that if these things aren\u2019t regulated at the county level, they aren\u2019t regulated at all,\u201d Schuller said.<\/p>\n

Schuller said that if the regulatory climate becomes too burdensome, oil and gas companies will redirect their money and resources elsewhere, to the detriment of the local governments and schools that benefit from the taxes the industry pays.<\/p>\n

Arapahoe County faced the same decision just two weeks ago. On Jan. 3, the county\u2019s commissioners voted 3-2 to reject proposed regulations similar to El Paso County\u2019s. Arapahoe County also received a letter from the Attorney General\u2019s Office laying out similar areas of potential conflict that it saw in El Paso County\u2019s draft regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not unique to any one locale. It\u2019s something that\u2019s happening across the state,\u201d said Mike Saccone, communications director for the Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Nancy Sharpe, chair of Arapahoe County\u2019s Board of County Commissioners, said those areas of conflict were a concern for the commissioners and they decided the county\u2019s goals with the regulation could be better addressed by working with the oil and gas commission. She said Arapahoe County will develop regulations on preferred road routes and historic preservation and will oversee drilling through access, building and soils permits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we came up with a good plan and that was No. 1 to be able to work with in the framework of the state oil and gas conservation commission,\u201d Sharpe said. \u201cIt\u2019s important for each county to look at their unique circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neslin said the oil and gas commission has worked with local governments in Gunnison County and elsewhere to address specific local concerns on issues such as inspections and hearings.<\/p>\n

He said there is a place for county oversight in matters such as roads and transportation, but the state takes the lead in regulating the operational aspects of drilling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at the end of the day we all share the same objective, which is to ensure that these resources which we all utilize are developed in a responsible manner that protects public health and safety and the environment,\u201d Neslin said.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright 2012<\/span> Freedom Communications. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Text of letter: AG letter to El Paso County of 1-10-2012 Attorney General warns El Paso County on proposed oil and gas regs ANDREW WINEKE 2012-01-17 16:26:51 The Attorney General\u2019s Office last week sent a letter warning El Paso County that its proposed oil and gas drilling regulations conflicted with state regulations. The letter, dated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,79,11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-energy","7":"category-not-growing-government","8":"category-planning","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}