The legislative showdown over oil and gas drilling had been headed to the full Colorado House for months, rumbling along like a low-grade temblor. When it finally hit the floor Thursday morning, it sent lawmakers out of their seats to the front of the chamber, where they faced off for more than two hours of debate.

They were clashing over House Bill 1310, sponsored by Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton. The bill would allow residents to hold drilling companies liable for property damages caused by extraction activities, including earthquakes caused by the practice of injecting millions of gallons of waste fluid from hydraulic fracturing deep into the earth.

Republicans lined up in opposition, calling the bill extreme, saying it would upend one of the main tenets of U.S. law by placing the burden on companies drilling in Colorado to prove they didn’t cause damage to homes or lower property values.

Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso said the bill unfairly targeted an industry that remains vital to the state economy — even as it has struggled with plummeting global oil prices and spreading opposition from activists as drilling has moved into urban and suburban Front Range Colorado.

“This is nothing more than an attack on an industry,” DelGrosso said.

It was the latest chapter in a running political battle in the state. On one side, Republicans with some Democratic officeholders have worked to protect the politically influential industry from any new state or local regulations. On the other side, local activists and an increasing number of Democratic officeholders have attempted to protect residents who have felt powerless to keep the heavy industrial activity from transforming their neighborhoods.

The bill was passed Friday in the House by Democrats on a near party-line vote, 33-31, with only Rep. Ed Vigil, D-Fort Garland, joining the Republicans voting against the measure, but the bill stands little chance of passing in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Still, House Republicans inveighed against the bill, poking at its assumptions, claiming it was based on fear instead of evidence.

Indeed, much of the debate echoed discussion sparked on March 10 in the House health committee over the bill. The hearing stretched on for hours and ended in a party-line vote.

Opposition at the time persuaded Salazar to add an amendment on Thursday that would thin liability the bill would place on drilling companies.

“We listened to people on the committee and to the stakeholders and we felt like, alright, fine, if this will reduce the argument … then that’s what we’re willing to do,” Salazar said.

Rep. Lori Saine, R-Firestone, said she thought the bill was not very well crafted.

“If we’re trying to use a tool and put a tool in the toolbox to actually solve a real problem, in my layman’s terms, this is the rubber chicken of tools,” she said. “I would argue that the industry is not responsible for these (problems) and we shouldn’t have this particular tool in our toolbox.”

Rep. Yeulin Willett, R-Grand Junction, offered an amendment that would require plaintiffs to pay legal fees incurred by an accused drilling company if a court ruled in its favor.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, did not support the bill.

“This bill raises serious concerns,” read a statement from his office issued after Thursday’s debate. “Although the legislation doesn’t intersect significantly with our regulatory program, we see several areas where it could cause problems.

“First, the department hasn’t seen widespread problems with property damage caused by seismicity in Colorado, generally, and we haven’t seen widespread seismicity caused by oil and gas operations. So those portions of the bill are a bit of a solution in search of a problem.

“The bill also would change the reasonable accommodation doctrine, which has been a successful approach in addressing conflicts between surface owners’ and mineral interest owners’ shared use of property.”

The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Morgan Carroll, an Aurora Democrat who is running for Congress.

Salazar said he is not writing off the bill’s chances in the upper chamber.

“I’ve talked to constituents all across the state,” he said, pointing out that those included constituents of some of the Republicans in the Senate. “They’re concerned about oil and gas operations and the fact that it is having an effect on their property and might be having an effect on their health. I’ve heard from their constituents who agree with this bill,” he said.

“It is really up to the people to put some pressure on our buddies over there in the sleepy Senate. Hopefully the (senators) will be proactive instead of reactionary,” he added.

Salazar announced his intent late last year to run this bill, spurred in part by angry residents opposed to a large oil and gas operation planned for unincorporated Wadley Farms outside of Thornton.

— ramsey@coloradostatesman.com