More Oil and Gas Regulation Headed for Colorado Ballots?

Come November, Colorado voters may decide whether oil and gas development should be subjected to more stringent regulation. Three ballot initiatives proposed by Boulder-based Coloradans Resisting Extreme Energy Development have survived legal challenges and are now headed for signature collection. Supporters have until August 8 to collect the necessary signatures to get these measures on the November ballot. Opponents, like Protecting Colorado’s Environment, Economy, and Energy Independence (PCEEEI), argue that passage of any of these measures could cripple Colorado’s oil and gas industry.

Proposed Initiative 63 (Right to Healthy Environment) creates a fundamental “right to a healthy environment” under the Colorado Constitution. It also specifies that local regulations that are more protective of a “healthy environment” will not be preempted by state law. Finally, the proposal creates a private right of action allowing any “aggrieved” party to sue for injunctive or declaratory relief, as well as punitive damages in some instances.

See text of the proposal here:
http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/titleBoard/filings/2015-2016/63Final.pdf

Proposed Initiative 75 (Local Government Control of Oil and Gas Development) declares that “[o]il and gas development, including the use of hydraulic fracturing, has detrimental impacts on public health, safety, general welfare, and the environment.” It transfers the regulatory authority over oil and gas operations from the state to local governments, and specifically recognizes local authority to ban oil and gas development entirely.

See text of the proposal here:
http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/titleBoard/filings/2015-2016/75Final.pdf

Proposed Initiative 78 (Mandatory Setback from Oil and Gas Development) increases minimum setbacks for new facilities (or for re-entry to a previously plugged and abandoned well) to 2,500 feet from schools, homes, hospitals, and “areas of special concern.” Current regulations require 500 foot setbacks from homes and 1,000 foot setbacks from “high occupancy buildings,” such as schools and hospitals. The proposal also authorizes local governments to require even greater setbacks.

PCEEEI estimates that this measure could eliminate “at least 87 percent of all new production in Weld County alone.” Governor Hickenlooper also weighed in on the matter, stating that the increased setbacks “would in many cases, invalidate people’s opportunity to extract natural resources that they own.”

See text of the proposal here:
http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/titleBoard/filings/2015-2016/78Final.pdf

For more on the citizen initiative process, see:
https://www.wsmtlaw.com/cms-assets/documents/191009-726917.gpsolo-article-novdec-2014.pdf

Does any of this sound familiar? In 2014, two oil and gas related initiatives – one requiring 2,000 foot setbacks and one authorizing increased local regulation of oil and gas development –garnered the requisite signatures and headed for the ballots. At the eleventh hour Governor Hickenlooper and Democratic Rep. Polis announced a compromise which kept these (and two industry-backed initiatives) off the ballots in exchange for the creation of a task force charged with addressing citizens’ concerns about hydraulic fracturing. If Initiatives 63, 75, and 78 move forward, we may be headed for a repeat of this drama in the fall.