Sat
Mar
14
2009
Good News - Colorado Democrats kill Oil and Gas Jobs during Recession.
Mar. 13—DENVER — The state House voted Thursday to increase gas and oil companies’ obligation to respect the environment and the concerns of property owners when they drill in Colorado.
Note: This could just as easily read ‘The state House voted Thursday to make it more expensive and difficult for oil companies to drill in Colorado, ensuring U.S. dependence on foreign energy sources.’ john@hearit.com
After one more, pro-forma vote, a bill enacting new rules drafted by the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will go to the Senate, which is expected to approve it. The new rules are scheduled to go into effect on April 1.
Democrats who control the House swatted down Republican attempts to defeat, delay or diminish the bill, arguing that the health and safety of Coloradans who live in energy-producing areas should not be compromised.
Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, hammered on the assertion that the new rules would cost jobs in the state’s gas and oil fields. He said 12,000 jobs have been lost already in oil and gas.
“Why do we insist on trying to kill jobs in the middle of a recession?” he asked.
Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, claimed the rules would cost “tens of thousands of jobs.”
But it was Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, who boiled the Republican argument down to its core. “People or prairie dogs?” he demanded.
About 300 demonstrators rallied at the Capitol to reinforce the Republican claims.
“We’ve seen boom and bust in Colorado before,” Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, told the rally. “But the busts that have come before have largely been accidents of economic nature. They shouldn’t be foisted on us by an unlistening government who is willing to forget who we are and who they work for and put us out of our jobs.”
Democrats insisted that the job losses were “accidents of economic nature” — the recession-induced collapse of demand for gas and oil and other market factors that the state cannot control. They argued that drilling companies have mothballed many of their rigs not because of rules that aren’t even in effect yet, but because it’s not worth drilling now.
Democrats pointed to statistics showing that the decline in oil and gas drilling was happening throughout the West, new rules or no.
“Commodity prices are what is killing the oil and gas industry in Colorado,” said Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder.
Copyright © 2009, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.
