With Colorado’s high unemployment numbers and wobbly economy, you would think that the administration would be scrambling to support industries that are actually creating jobs. You would be wrong…unless you think levying $1.5 billion in regulatory compliance costs on natural gas small businesses is supportive.
Hey, Ken Salazar, Colorado “son”, we’re talking to you.
The Department of the Interior and its lackey, the Bureau of Land Management, have proposed a series of rules to regulate hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”. In response, the Western Energy Alliance commissioned an economic impact study from John Dunham & Associates that found that these new rules would cost the energy industry around $1.5 billion each year due to “significantly more permitting and operational expenses for companies drilling and completing oil and gas wells on federal lands.”
That’s unfortunate since fracking and the associated increase in energy production would create thousands of new jobs in Colorado. Jobs aside, the new rules will cost energy companies over a billion a year in lost production, which is the exact opposite of what BLM chief Mike Pool said in testimony to Congress last month about the development of the rules:
“[the rules were developed with an eye toward public awareness and oversight [of fracking] without introducing complicated new procedures or delays in the process of developing oil and gas resources."
Whoops, I guess he forgot about that.
According to Western Energy Alliance government relations guru, Kathleen Sgamma, “states have been successfully regulating [fracking] for generations, including on federal lands, with no incident of contamination that would necessitate redundant federal regulation." This isn’t the first time that Western Energy alliance has fought back, the alliance sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, requesting that he suspend the fracking rules.
Colorado Oil and Gas Association clarified the situation for anyone who was momentarily confused by the incessant pandering by the left to its environmental base: “[Colorado disclosures] ha[ve] been characterized as the most transparent and stringent set of hydraulic fracturing regulations and is setting the pace for the rest of the country.”
Hey, Secretary Salazar, keep your hands off Colorado’s jobs.
Thank so much!
Love,
The 215,000 Coloradans who are still looking for a job.