Chieftain again quoted oil and gas rules opponent without providing supporters' viewpoints

Summary: For the second time in a week, The Pueblo Chieftain reported criticism of a state commission's proposed energy regulations but omitted any response from those supporting the rules. The article stated that business leaders in Trinidad say the state's "rush to regulate threatened to cripple" the town's economy and quoted energy company executive Jay Still extensively, but provided no other views regarding the proposed rules revisions.

A June 29 article in The Pueblo Chieftain reported that the southern Colorado town of Trinidad "is leading a revolt against the new rules" proposed by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, stating that "Trinidad leaders" say "[t]he state's rush to regulate threatened to cripple the economy of Trinidad and a number of other small cities across the state, and all for no good reason." However, the Chieftain included no response from commission members or from any public supporters of the proposed regulations. Instead, the article by Dennis Darrow reported almost exclusively criticism of the proposal from Jay Still, vice president of Pioneer Natural Resources, the largest extractor of coal bed methane gas in Colorado's Raton Basin.

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, a June 1 Chieftain article also quoted Still at length regarding his objections to the commission's draft rules, without providing comment from any supporters of those revisions. Additionally, Colorado Media Matters has documented (here, here, and here) other articles in which the Chieftain either published misinformation about the proposed regulations or reported only criticism of them.

In its June 29 article, the Chieftain reported, "Backers of sweeping new state regulations on the energy industry, consumed by a desire to slow natural gas drilling around Rifle and Meeker in the state's northwest corner, continue to pay a price for their tunnel vision. While they weren't looking, Trinidad jumped into the fray." The article continued:

And now, like a pied piper of methane, the small city with a rich energy history of its own is leading a revolt against the new rules.

Moreover, the tide of criticism is swelling so big, so fast that some political observers think a possible November ballot question to collect extra tax money from the energy industry may tank.

Trinidad leaders are unapologetic. The state's rush to regulate threatened to cripple the economy of Trinidad and a number of other small cities across the state, and all for no good reason, they say.

The old approach -- local control with an assist from state and federal agencies -- worked well, they say. Sweeping new mandates from the state aren't needed, they say.

[...]

At a public hearing last week in Denver, representatives from Trinidad and Las Animas County were among the first to take the podium to protest the new rules.

Three weeks ago, Trinidad dispatched two busloads of people to a public hearing in Grand Junction. The buses were ordered up after the state refused Trinidad's requests for its own public hearing.

Others are hitting the speaking circuit.

Among them: Jay Still, vice president of Pioneer Natural Resources and current chairman of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. Pioneer is Las Animas County's biggest energy producer.

Still calls Trinidad's response uplifting.

"You've just seen a lot of people who've taken a very active role in shaping their future. And I greatly appreciate it. They've got a dog in this fight," Still says.

Still is proving an effective spokesperson for the industry.

Plain-spoken and forthright, he takes the mystery out of what occurs in the board room as energy companies decide where to invest their money -- and where not to invest their money.

While the Chieftain quoted Still throughout the article, the piece provided no viewpoint from anyone supporting the commission's proposed regulations.

As Colorado Media Matters pointed out, on June 1 the Chieftain reported that "[t]he Trinidad and Las Animas Chamber of Commerce has chartered two buses to take interested parties to Grand Junction next month when the state will devote an entire day to public comment on the newly proposed oil and gas rules." The article similarly cited Still's criticism of the commission's draft rules without providing any other perspective.

Additionally, in an April 12 article headlined "Methane company dislikes new rules," the Chieftain (accessed through the Nexis database) reported exclusively on Still's objections to the proposed regulations, and, again, cited no other viewpoints:

TRINIDAD -- After studying the state's proposed new oil and gas rules, a local coal-bed methane producer said they may permanently hurt the industry.

Jay Still, vice president of the Pioneer Natural Resources' Raton Basin division, said that while the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission spared the Raton Basin from "stifling" wildlife regulations, the rest of the state will be held to a four-month blanket moratorium on drilling.

"It's an industry killer," he said. And Still said he thinks the moratorium, intended to protect wildlife, goes far beyond the spirit of legislation passed last year that required the rules to be rewritten.

In contrast, a March 21 Chieftain article (accessed through Nexis) reported Still's claim that "[t]he rules would mean fewer jobs, a declining tax base, fewer restaurant patrons and less demand for goods and services across the entire economic spectrum," but also noted support for the rules:

Joni Steiner, who owns Earth Mountain Farm, a sustainability education center in Weston, said she's counting on the new regulations to restore peace to her property. She said it's becoming difficult to find a quiet spot on her 440-acre spread.

"Peace in the canyons is gone," she said. "There's constant noise from the gas wells, trucks, big rigs and gas workers." Not to mention the quality and quantity of the water in her area. She said the agricultural lifestyle she and her husband created for themselves has been industrialized.

"As I see it, the state regulatory body has the duty to protect the welfare of the people," she said. "The gas companies have essentially free reign in Colorado, with the state and local authorities either being afraid to implement rules due to getting sued by the industry, or that there is so much money floating around it makes people turn their heads to the serious impacts to the land, wildlife and people it affects."

Steiner said that what frustrates her the most, is that when the gas runs out, the community will still be left without jobs, but also with land that has been ruined.

She said local politicians don't know how to detach the economy from old, destructive means of revenue.

—C.H.