As the nation begins to recover from the pandemic, men and women across the country are returning to work to produce the energy we all need.

In Texas, an average of 2,500 new oil and gas jobs have been added to the state’s workforce each month for the past six months. In New Mexico, the number of rigs drilling for energy has doubled, jumping from 44 to 88.

But in Colorado, one of the top oil and gas producing states in the country, a new jobs report suggests Colorado will add only 600 new jobs in “natural resources and mining” in our state in 2022. You read that correctly: 600.

Gov. Polis, where are the jobs?

Regulations and red tape from the Polis administration are tying up the recovery in our state and it’s impacting our communities. Only five permits for new oil and gas drilling locations have been issued by the state in all of 2021. Just five.

Our entire state relies on the oil and natural gas industry to produce good-paying jobs that benefit our communities and help our local economies. The industry pays more than $1 billion in local and state taxes that go back into our towns and schools. But the benefits, as well as any impacts, are even more pronounced in our counties of Weld and Garfield, where the majority of oil and natural gas is produced.

Colorado lost 7,000 natural resources and mining jobs in 2020 and another 2,000 jobs in 2021, according to the new report produced by the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business.

So why isn’t our state seeing industry rebound like what’s happening in Texas, New Mexico or even Wyoming?

Richard Wobbekind, associate dean with CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, was recently quoted as saying growth has been hampered by the regulations approved by the state in recent years. He noted that, barring Colorado’s new regulatory system, the researchers who prepared the report likely would have projected higher 2022 production levels. The models “had shown a very high correlation between higher prices and higher output, with higher prices driving more production,” but activity could be higher without the new restrictions, he said.

Brian Lewandowski, also with CU, told Natural Gas Intelligence that the pandemic-related reduction “was almost all economic in nature” but, “with the rebound, we do see the new regulations holding some things back.”

Now is not the time for state government to “hold back” an industry that’s needed to power our economy, heat our homes and support our communities. Instead, the state should be finding ways to incentivize more production in Colorado.

In 2019, Democrats approved Senate Bill 181, which set into motion a series of massive rule-makings that have added more than $300 million to the cost of doing business in Colorado.

The legislation purportedly gave more control to local governments when it came to oil and gas production. But that only works one way. If a local government wants to enact more controls and restrictions on the industry, it can. But our counties can’t create rules to incentivize more exploration and production.

Operators now face nearly a year time frame to secure a permit. This isn’t local control; this is state control and state policies are restricting investment in our communities and leaving operators second-guessing their plans. Bottom line: it’s a bureaucratic moratorium.

Many of our constituents have lost their jobs and moved away. Investment and spending have failed to recover in our counties and we’re facing budget shortfalls as a result.

The concerns and real-life impacts we shared with the governor and legislators on their attacks on the oil and gas industry are taking hold. Instead of unleashing this important industry, these same policy makers continue to unleash more red tape and lip service. When signing SB-181, Gov. Polis declared the oil and gas wars over. We can assure you that the war on oil and gas, and thus, the war on rural Colorado, continue.

It’s time for the Polis administration to stop the constant rule-makings; to stop adding to the costs of doing business in Colorado, and to begin approving more permits. Gov. Polis, let’s again help make America energy independent and let’s put Coloradans back to work!

Scott James serves on the Weld County Commission. He is a fourth-generation Colorado native reared in LaSalle, a community his great grandfather and great, great grandfather helped found. Scott, his wife, Julie, and son, Jack, reside in Johnstown, where he served for nearly 20 years as chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission; as a member of the Town Council and as mayor. Tom Jankovsky, a third-generation, native Coloradan, is serving his third term on the Garfield County Commission.