Guest essay via The Center Square, reprinted with permission.
A bill to substantially restrict oil and gas permitting in Colorado would result in widespread financial and environmental impacts, according to a new report by a research group.
The report, published by the Common Sense Institute, a free-enterprise think tank, says Senate Bill 24-159 would negatively impact the state’s economy as well as tax revenue at the state and local levels.
The legislation also would result in increased emissions, according to the report, which referenced the recently published Colorado Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap 2.0 Report to support its point.
“More fuel would be imported to Colorado, primarily by heavy trucks carrying oil and gas products, which themselves produce local air pollution,” the state document says.
SB24-159 would mandate the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission to adopt regulations ending the issuance of new oil and gas permits by Jan. 1, 2030. It would reduce the number new wells in 2028 and 2029 and require companies receiving permits after 2024 to stop operating by 2032.
The bill is scheduled for a hearing by the Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee on Thursday.
CSI found $1.9 billion in state and local tax revenue in 2022 from the oil and gas industry was the largest single source of revenue, an average of $321 per Colorado resident.
The $1.2 billion in property taxes paid by the industry was the largest source of revenue for local taxing districts, according to the report. Schools received $432 million in oil and gas property tax revenue, and fire and police departments, cities, counties and other local services received $768 million. It amounted to 6% of all property tax revenue and 7% of all school property tax revenue.
“The economic impact of banning oil and gas drilling in Colorado would be devastating and goes beyond lost production, tax revenue, and job losses,” CSI Energy Fellow Trisha Curtis said in a statement. “At a minimum at risk is $2 billion in state and local tax revenue, over $400 million which funds Colorado schools, and nearly 200,000 jobs.”
If the bill becomes law, CSI estimates a total of 34,700 jobs would be lost in Colorado during in the first year and 181,800 during the next 10 years. It projects 70% of the jobs lost will be in the metro Denver area. The state’s gross domestic product would be reduced by 5.4% or $48.5 billion in the 10th year and a total of $321 billion during the decade.
The report emphasized the proposed law would only shift where energy is produced.
“This action would likely result in more pollution, higher methane emissions, more air pollution in our neighboring states, increased transportation emissions from increased imports of fossil fuels for use in Colorado, increased risk of accidents and spills of oil and gas products through increased interstate trucking, and price disruptions and less certainty of supply for all Coloradans without a meaningful long-term impact on fossil fuel consumption,” the report stated, referencing Gov. Jared Polis’ roadmap.
Anthony Watts is a senior fellow for environment and climate at The Heartland Institute. Watts has been in the weather business both in front of, and behind the camera as an on-air television meteorologist since 1978, and currently does daily radio forecasts. He has created weather graphics presentation systems for television, specialized weather instrumentation, as well as co-authored peer-reviewed papers on climate issues. He operates the most viewed website in the world on climate, the award-winning website wattsupwiththat.com.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Colorado ponders joining California and NY among the states that are self-destructing. A solution in search of a problem.
It all began with mail-in voting.
And it’s going to continue until SCOTUS agrees that mail-in voting is inherently fraudulent absent stringent procedures to ensure accurate voter roles and secure custody of ballots. Challenges by ‘red state’ AGs to ‘loose’ practices in so-called ‘swing states’ need to be filed before elections take place in order to have any chance of achieving standing’.
We wish California and NY will self destruct. It would eliminate the coastal liberals California and NY which is the problem. They are incapable of making logical right choices. If they do “shoot themselves in the foot” with this legislation they deserve to suffer the outcome.
And the South Park boys were right again, years in advance.
The boys learn that South Park’s newly-developed cloud of smug fueled by hybrids and George Clooney will soon merge with San Francisco’s constant smug cloud.
Another likely outcome is the emigration of enough of these people to other states, where they will act and vote the same way, thus infect and destroy their new states.
They have legal heroin and cocaine, what do they need tax revenue for?
The People’s Republic of Colorado is already a “sanctuary state”, how bad can a few more unemployed be?
It probably will get worse and it’s already so sad.
https://www.denverpost.com/2024/01/17/broomfield-crash-rioradn-melissa-powell-dui-jose-menjivar-ice-immigration/
The Post seems to have gone to email-ware.
The 2030 stop date is indefensible. We need all of the oil and gas that can be responsibly produced.
Rather, the state should hammer down on substandard ES&RC practices via enforced statutes. They can vary by location, depending on impacts.
The state should also form a working group of industry pro’s, audited by the COGCC, to continuously update well and field asset retirement costs and stop the practice of never ending P&A (plug and abandonment) extensions for wells in fields for which “We might find some indeterminate use for, some day”. The costs should then be bonded and/or lockboxed for every operator in every field, for all wells and facilities.
IOW, real enforcement of common sense regs would get you to the same place – probably faster….
Age-old problem there: what person or persons determines what is “common sense”?
“Common sense” regs are mostly covered by API RP’s (American Petroleum Institute Recommended Practices). They are all private sector, and are generated by industry experts. Unfortunately, they are also mostly not mandated, and are therefore widely ignored.
So all the same bonding must also be required for the removal and return to natural state for all solar and wind developments BOB?? Paid for by the developers of the wind and solar scars on the landscape?
You NEVER mention that. Why is that BOB?
He’ll need a very generous subsidy for that.
Some panels couldn’t handle all of our nonexistent snow.
They look like two-axis trackers — the one failed at a flange, maybe it was the high-quality fasteners from China.
Nah.
One-arm flay rod came askew on treadle.
trouble at mill.
I like how the reporter discovered that snow slides right off panels when they are vertical.
Definition of an info babe.
So in Colorado, flat exterior surfaces are not designed for snow loading? Perhaps it is a DEI hire that controls building codes?
Yeah, they confused their nuts and bolts.
Glad I didn’t sign off on that design.
“So all the same bonding must also be required for the removal and return to natural state for all solar and wind developments BOB??”
Fine with the bonding, but it will mostly be extraneous. Why? Unlike extractive enterprises, which deplete and are all too often left trashed, the value in wind and solar sites is their location. So, except for poorly cited wind and solar projects, they will be run pretty much into perpetuity. The land owners will be payed rents (which have already saved many family farms) and the facilities will be continuously improved. So force clean ups on the tiny fraction of sites that were rented by bad actors, with bonding/lockboxing of all, if you like. But in practice normal landlord/renter agreements will handle the vast majority.
“they will be run pretty much into perpetuity.”
Wow.. the oily blob is in total La-La-land.
Many so-called “good” sites are already littered with ruined and derelict wind turbines
NO! the huge blobs of concrete will not be removed, and will not suit new turbines.
NO! the subsidies will have to end.. and that will be the end of wind and solar… and it WILL be left for the taxpayer to tidy up the environmental mess and devastation that is left behind.
“Many so-called “good” sites are already littered with ruined and derelict wind turbines”
I can think of one, small site. Tehachapi California. A beautiful set up that is actually a sought after day hike. The industry has been moving to flatter sites with smoother winds, and retirement is under way. Do you have any others? More to the point, what fraction of current sites are no longer operational? A reminder, your claim, your responsibility to prove it. At least above ground.
OTOH, 2/3 of the 2 million extant oil and gas wells are over 10 years old. IOW, mostly depleted and/or already shut in. Not comparable in the least…
Solar sites are absolutely extractive. They require huge amounts of rare earths, silicon purified by huge amounts of coal, huge amounts of copper mining… Its a long list of things that must be extracted to create solar panels. So its a double whammy for the environment.
Another missed point. The claim was that renewable sites had qualitatively similar asset retirement costs as fossil fuel sites. They don’t – by far. Even if you go the distance and include off site asset retirement costs, there is no comparison. FYI, there is an even longer “list” of off site resources required for fossil fuel production/transportation. Steel, cement, sand, fuels, water to be turned into hazardous waste, hundreds of toxic compounds, an many more. More required if we actually plug and abandon the millions of wells (and associated facilities) that now or later will require it. Since I did this for my adult life, I’ll claim cred here…
You missed the point. If you’re going to scream about the costs of oil extraction you have to scream also about the costs of solar panel materials extraction. They both deliver energy somewhere else. You cannot exclude part of the food chain for one and not the other and have a reasonable assessment of the environmental impact. If you are not looking at the big picture you are blinding yourself, and by repeating it, attempting to blind others.
What does ES&RC mean? What does COGCC mean? What does IOW mean? Thanks for explaining P&A
ES&RC – Environmental. Safety, and Responsible Care
COGCC – Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
IOW – In other words.
Bigger pic, guilty as charged on using insider terms. Many of the comments here are tangentially related to oil and gas production, and I assumed that the commenters are hip to those terms. It’s also a habit borne of laziness and prior training. When I first broke out, 6AM had us taking morning reports in the field office, dictated over the phone from company men on location. If I hadn’t used the industry wide short hand for familiar terms I wouldn’t have been available for vendors to buy my lunch.
In a fair world, the oil and gas industry should cut back the sales of their refined products within the state of Colorado by the same percentage that Colorado cut backs their permitting of oil and gas exploration and production leases.
You know, “sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander”.
As much as the idea sounds like a good way to jolt people’s senses back to reality, companies should not harm their customers. That’s what we have government for.
Suncor owns and operates the only refinery in Colorado. It gets a large percentage of its crude from Canada. Cutting product sales would negatively impact human and equipment utilization locally and back up through the supply chain.
Unfortunately, like virtually all things oil and gas related here in Colorado, Suncor is under attack too. The end game of democrats is to force them out of business, with the purpose it would seem to cause fuel prices to skyrocket.
“As much as the idea sounds like a good way to jolt people’s senses back to reality, companies should not harm their customers. That’s what we have government for.”
I just fell over laughing . . . 🙂
Where I live we have referred to residents of the state to the south of us as “greenies” for decades because of their license plates. Now we see that label as having been prophetic.
Perhaps the new black plates signify dark times ahead.
The new white-on-oxide red plates aren’t much better.
Prohibition of alcohol “failed” but now a bottle of bourbon is 75% tax….prohibition of weed is on the same path….the long term plan of manipulators at the top is to make the price of fossil fuels 75% tax as well.
Seems that way.
It’s been 50% for years.
I found this interesting
The Biden administration is funneling $1 billion in taxpayer funds to America’s northern and southern borders to make dozens of federal ports of entry more climate friendly
…
Spending a billion dollars to build a so-called ‘environmentally friendly’ port of entry feels like a slap in the face to Americans
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-funnels-1-billion-climate-programs-borders-amid-ongoing-migrant-crisis
We’ve been testifying against this insanity:
20th – Testifying at Midstream Greenhouse gas reduction session
7th – Testifying before Colorado House Energy & Environment
If these idiots want to commit suicide, drop them on a deserted island with a pistol and one cartridge.
” … by Jan. 1, 2030.”
I heard a rumor that that is the date of the foretold “Rapture.”
The Social Security “period life table” indicates I will be
around to witness these events, so living in interesting times
will be a real thing and not just a saying.
The delay gives the politicians and bureaucrats time to find
new sources of income. Responsible planning at its finest!
Exited Colorado in 2019,,,none too soon. Shake my head every week when I read the latest from CO. We never thought we would leave CO, but sometimes you do what you have to do.
These people are so stupid. All oil, gas and diesel should be outlawed in Colorado starting this year. Next year all fertilizer, synthetic cloth and plastics should be outlawed in Colorado. The next year we can talk about the wisdom of their leadership.
Colorado and Wyoming combined could theoretically produce enough natural gas for the whole country. But what we really need is to wall off California. The New Mexico border is only a start, lol.
Its pathetic that the main appeal is how it will hurt the tax coffers of Government, not in how it is an assault on human flourishing, hostile to affordable and reliable energy for We The People, displaces energy workers as they either retire, retrain or leave the State where they have their home and community.
Colorado doesn’t have the ability to just print money, they either have to scheme for more payouts and grants from Uncle Sugar, increase taxes on an already economically battered population, all the while dealing with an influx of illegal aliens who put enormous strain on civil services and the public treasury.
its like the goal is Cloward-Piven. Yet these Cluster B sociopaths will be reëlected and appointed to complete the demolition mission safe in the knowledge that they have defined benefit pensions to support them in perpetuity.
Colorado was once a beautiful place. Then Californian kooks were welcomed with open check books to purchase paradise in all the mountain towns. They brought their NIMBY attitudes and insisted that nothing be allowed to spoil their environment, except the airports, highways, condos, McMansions, restaurants, high end shopping, helo skiing, etc. Now thanks to big marijuana, they all sing John Denver songs and feel so intune with Gia and rail against evil oil and gas polluters!!!
Oops, gotta get on the jet to go see the Oscar’s, but don’t worry, I’ll be back for brunch tomorrow, have the driver waiting with the car warm.
I moved to Gunnison County CO from Austin TX a couple of years ago, primarily because of debt-free residence and low property taxes. Yes, Colorado is home to magnificent natural beauty, matched only by the general population’s (that I’ve been exposed to) broad-based ignorance of science and critical thought. It’s amazing, really. But eliminating fossil fuel extraction in the state is the work of the same feel-good, front-range morons that thought releasing wolves in cattle country was a “good idea.”