Author: David O. Williams
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Lamborn, Colorado GOP balk at highway funding bill
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The senior Republican member of Colorado’s congressional delegation, Doug Lamborn, told The Colorado Statesman on Friday that the highway funding bill passed by the House on Thursday and lauded as a victory for new House Speaker Paul Ryan is a bad deal for the country. “Although there were many good things in the bill, the…
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Governor seeks Supreme Court opinion on attorney general’s EPA lawsuit
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Environmentalists and pro fossil-fuel groups predictably reacted with equal parts elation and disgust Monday after Gov. John Hickenlooper told the Denver Post editorial board he plans to seek a Colorado Supreme Court opinion on the legality of Attorney General Cynthia Coffman’s decision to sue the EPA over its Clean Power Plan. Coffman, a Republican, told…
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Hickenlooper, Coffman at odds over lawsuit challenging EPA’s Clean Power Plan
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Friday’s 24-state lawsuit seeking to block the EPA’s Clean Power Plan underscored a rift between Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, who on the same day brushed aside accusations her decisions are influenced by the fossil fuel industry. “We do not support this lawsuit,” Hickenlooper said in an email statement to The…
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Local-control drilling rules skewered by both sides
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Colorado’s chief regulatory agency for oil and gas drilling on Tuesday released new rules to give local governments more control over industry operations, but community activists are largely unimpressed and appear poised to ratchet up the battle at the ballot box next year. The proposed rules were born of Gov. John Hickenlooper’s Oil and Gas…
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Gaming industry looks to cash in political chips in Colorado, Nevada
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The casino gaming industry is doubling down on political events next week, looking to flex its economic muscle at the first Democratic presidential primary debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday and at an event in Wheat Ridge ahead of the next Republican debate in Boulder at the end of the month. According to the industry…
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Colorado Supreme Court to hear city fracking-ban cases
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The Colorado Supreme Court this week agreed to decide two citizen-driven anti-fracking cases that will go a long way toward determining the future of oil and gas drilling across Colorado. In both cases — a five-year moratorium on fracking imposed by Fort Collins and an outright fracking ban in Longmont — industry and state officials…
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Sage grouse decision lauded, but some green groups not impressed
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For the most part, Colorado conservation groups and politicians this week were singing the praises of a five-year collaborative effort to preserve greater sage grouse habitat and avoid federal listing of the bird as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The “not-warranted” decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was announced Tuesday by U.S.…
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Amid acrimony over abandoned mines, lawmakers float bipartisan solutions
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U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner are poised to take yet another run at “Good Samaritan” legislation that would allow third parties to clean up abandoned mines without being liable under the Clean Water Act. “Sen. Gardner and I are working to reintroduce a bill this Congress,” Bennet said in testimony Wednesday at a…
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Local-control rules for oil and gas drilling in Colorado coming soon
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Following a lengthy outreach process, draft local-control rules for oil and gas drilling near homes and public buildings in Colorado’s towns and counties are “imminent,” according to Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Director Matt Lepore. The COGCC rulemaking stems from two recommendations made by Gov. John Hickenlooper’s Oil and Gas Task Force aimed at…
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EPA to hold Denver hearing on oil and gas methane rules
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More than 100 environmentalists, oil and gas industry representatives and members of the public have signed up to testify next week at a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hearing in Denver on proposed rules to reduce methane and other emissions during oil and gas production. The federal rules mirror those adopted by the Colorado Air Quality…