Following Colorado Media Matters item, Daily Sentinel provided oil and gas commission's response to industry threat to "leave"

Summary: Following a January 24 Colorado Media Matters item, The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction on January 26 reported the response of the state commission that is revising energy industry regulations to an earlier Daily Sentinel article that extensively quoted energy industry officials' comments against the proposed development rules but provided no differing viewpoints. The earlier article reported that energy producers were threatening "to look outside Colorado for business"; the January 26 article reported that commission members "denied" claims that the industry "has been left out" of the "rule-making process."

On January 24, Colorado Media Matters noted that The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, in a January 23 article, reported only energy industry viewpoints about proposed state development regulations that had energy producers threatening "to look outside Colorado for business." Following the Colorado Media Matters item, the Daily Sentinel on January 26 reported the rebuttal of the agency writing the proposed regulations -- the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission -- to industry officials' complaints.

As Colorado Media Matters noted, the January 23 article by Bobby Magill reported that "Colorado's oil and gas industry is hopping mad about new energy development regulations being written by the state, so much so that industry members say it could force them to look outside Colorado for business." The article further reported that officials from the industry's Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA) and from several energy producers stated that "they feel the Oil and Gas Commission is overstepping what the laws require, and industry hasn't been adequately represented in the rulemaking process," but it did not provide any input from members of the state commission or any non-industry sources.

Colorado Media Matters further noted that the Daily Sentinel's one-sided reporting stemmed from a January 23 meeting of energy industry officials with the newspaper's editorial board, and repeated a Daily Sentinel practice that Colorado Media Matters had previously pointed out regarding a December 13 article reporting industry opposition to energy rules that the commission was developing.

In the January 26 article, also by Magill, the Daily Sentinel reported that "Colorado Department of Natural Resources officials have denied the Colorado Oil and Gas Association's claims that industry has been left out of an oil and gas development rule-making process." The article further reported commission members' response to the energy industry officials' complaints:

But in a letter to COGA, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Chairman Harris Sherman and Commission Acting Director David Neslin said the energy industry chose not to comment on the creation of a pre-draft proposal for the new rules.

The draft rules will be issued in March.

The state is conducting stakeholder meetings as part of the rule-making process, Sherman and Neslin said, providing ample opportunity for the industry to have input in the final shape of the rules industry members say they're concerned about.

In rebutting COGA's claims, Sherman and Neslin cited Garfield and Mesa counties' support of the rule-making process.

The Oil and Gas Commission, Sherman and Neslin said, is trying to take a balanced approach to implementing House bills 1298 and 1341 that will bolster the energy industry while also protecting the environment.

"The Legislature will have an opportunity to review the final rules after they are adopted," they wrote.

—C.H.