Colorado passed landmark environmental legislation in 2019, SB19-181, concerning “additional public welfare protections regarding the conduct of oil and gas operations.” The object of the law is to place public health and safety as the most important consideration influencing oil and gas drilling and production permits. This mission replaced previous priorities that emphasized efficient and economical development of oil and gas resources.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) is the state agency granted the responsibility for implementing the law. COGCC progress is up for review this week. Legislators will have to evaluate whether the commission has met the law’s requirements in the rules it has established.

This evaluation is important for many reasons related to pollution and climate change.

The EPA says Colorado’s air is terrible. Oil and gas development contributes to our air pollution especially in the summer when sunlight and heat combine with organic chemicals from oil and gas operations to create ozone that causes respiratory irritation or worse.

The law says oil and gas drilling may not occur within 2,000 feet of residences and other buildings. This distance was set not based on science. It was set because that is the distance defined in a study commissioned by the state that arbitrarily established 2,000 feet as its maximum distance for measurement. Voilà!

The legislature more recently added environmental social justice as a component of permitting decisions. This General Assembly should determine whether the COGCC has allowed permits that egregiously affect low-income and minority communities.

Given the potentially broad implications of SB19-181’s impact on the state, how has the COGCC responded? Has it stopped oil and gas drilling, as some environmentalists hoped? Or has drilling proceeded as if nothing happened?

In 2019, the year SB19-181 was passed, the COGCC permitted 2,109 wells. That number declined in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID and the regulatory process. The COGCC permitted 1,543 wells in 2020 and 896 in the peak COVID year of 2021. It appears the numbers are rising again with at least 1,115 wells permitted in 2022. It’s difficult to determine the exact number, which may be as high as 2,961, because of the COGCC’s opaque and byzantine stages of permitting. The total number of wells permitted since SB19-181 was signed into law is probably 6,397.

Clearly, the oil and gas industry hasn’t been shut down in Colorado. As an example, PDC Energy has recently received permits to develop more than 33,000 acres of land with 22 locations for 466 new wells to be drilled over 10 years. It’s called the Guanella Project. The drilling will occur in northeast Colorado, mostly in Weld County. The well density will be 22 to 24 wells per well pad.

The COGCC commissioners accepted this permit recommendation from Jeff Robbins, director of the commission. It includes a waiver to perform an evaluation of cumulative impacts for each oil and gas development plan (OGDP) as required.

The methodology behind determining the “cumulative impacts” of oil and gas development is important. First, the permits are not based on actual measurements of pollution. They are given on estimates of pollution based on models from the COGCC and the state’s Air Quality Control Division (AQCD). The federal Environmental Protection Agency confirmed the AQCD was not performing its job to protect air quality based on whistleblower complaints.

One question underlying air quality models is the breadth of cumulative impacts. That is, should the modelling be based on PDC’s 33,000 acres of development and 466 new wells, or should it be based on the cumulative impact of those wells and all other wells in the area that send polluting chemicals and other stuff into the air, ground or water?

Larimer County, to the west of the drilling area, put its objections to the COGCC. It stated that the pollution from these wells and others will not stay in Weld County where the drilling will occur but will float over into Larimer creating problems for its residents. The pollution will also flow south down the I-25 corridor into metro Denver.

Apparently for the COGCC, these complaints aren’t significant, at least not significant enough to withhold permitting. Nor were comments from citizens objecting to PDC’s application based on pollution and climate change grounds.

These are just some of the issues the 2023 General Assembly may consider as the COGCC, with its commissioners underwritten by $150,000 in salary per commissioner plus $167,000 for director Robbins, moves forward in its oil and gas permitting and regulation-writing processes.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.