Category Archives: SB-181

Posts specifically about SB-181

CO state regulatory agencies, COGCC, ECMC, Environmental damage from O&G, General Environmental Reference, Ozone pollution in Front Range, Polis administration, SB-181

STAR gets a stay: how a grassroots effort won the day…for now

December 13, 2025 Rick Casey 1 Comment

As this blog reported earlier (“The fate of the Aurora Reservoir began today”, 11/20/25), the residential neighborhoods clustered around the southwestern corner of the Aurora Reservoir, containing several thousand residents, had banded together under the non-profit STAR — for Save The Aurora Reservoir. Faced with the prospect since 2022 of over 100 wells being drilled by Crestone Energy within several miles of their community, STAR organized, campaigned, raised thousands of dollars in funding, and hired the best attorney in the state to argue their case — Mike Foote, who helped write the law, SB19-181, under which this application was now to be judged by.

That law redefined the purpose for which the oil and gas industry is regulated in Colorado. In 2019. When the law was passed, that regulatory agency was called the COGCC, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which largely existed to “foster the industry.” Ever since it was created in the mid-20th century, ostensibly, a “balanced” approach, on paper, between the environment and development was supposed to be taken by the COGCC; but that was never the case in reality. SB19-181 changed that: the COGCC was renamed to the Energy Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) would by law prioritize protecting the health and safety of people and the environment above fostering the industry. Also mandated by the new law was the creation of a professional board of five commissioners, with a professional staff to support it, which would replace the previous volunteer board. However, as with many such laws, this qualitative rule was not backed up by any quantitative regulatory standard through which to evaluate the health and safety of people and the environment. Rather, it would depend solely on decisions that would be made by the five commissioners.

Would this new law really matter?

There was reason to doubt that the ECMC would take its new role seriously. It took some time before SB19-181 went into effect, due to the process by which a law which requires regulations gets translated into rules by which a regulatory agency interprets the law. It would take nearly two years for that to happen.

In the meantime, the COGCC continued to function, pretty much unchanged from its previous behavior of rubber stamping any new application for an O&G well. As far as I am aware, the COGCC never denied a single application, and it would allow 1,000 new O&G wells to get drilled each year since 2019. It really seemed like not much had changed. Some say this has been due to the political influence under Governor Polis, elected in 2018, who has been favorably disposed to the O&G industry, judging by his actions. Under the Polis administration, around 5,000 new O&G wells have been drilled in the state, the majority of them in the Front Range, scattered from south Denver to the Pawnee Grasslands north of Greeley.

So even after the ECMC came into being in 2022, there did not seem to have been much of a change in how things worked in how the public at large was affected by the O&G industry in the field. Citizens who have been sickened in their homes from breathing polluted air created by fracking operations, or had the quality of their lives destroyed by the noise from drilling, or the increased truck traffic in their area, and have complained loudly as individuals to the COGCC, were ignored.

The citizens of STAR had been anxiously waiting for their day in court, so to speak, since this hearing began on November 20. Would their efforts to protect their community pay off? Or would this commission behave like its predecessor did, and merely rubber stamp what the industry wanted to do, as in the past? One can imagine their apprehension.

The way that the ECMC works under hearings like this now, in the era of the internet and Zoom technology, is under much more public scrutiny than in the past. These public hearings are announced in advance, with the Zoom link published to allow literally anyone to view the proceedings. There is literally no room to hide for the 5 ECMC commissioners — which the reason that SB19-181 was created. Before that law was passed, the COGCC functioned as a body appointed by the governor from within the ranks of state employees, already serving in other capacities. There were a total of around a dozen people, comprised of a mix of backgrounds, including the CDPHE (Colorado Dept of Public Health & Environment) and the CPW (Colorado Parks & Wildlife). However, their role in the COGCC was simply advisory, and decisions were made a simple majority; of course, the O&G appointees outnumber the rest. Although ostensibly a “balanced” board, the COGCC clearly supported the industry throughout its history.

The Fateful Decision

ON THE DAY of the decision, Wednesday, December 10, I listened to the hearing itself…an arduous process…for about 45 minutes…but gave up at that point. Unless you were intimately knowledgeable with the case, the minutiae of detail was mindnumbing to follow. The meeting continued for another couple of hours.

Here is one screenshot, which pretty much conveys what the rest of the nearly 3 hr long meeting looked like:

ECMC commissioners address the STAR case

In this shot, Commissioner Brett Ackerman was speaking; each commissioner got their turn. He was quite articulate, speaking like a lawyer, and I recall him covering many detailed points. In particular, he pointed out how many emails he had received that were from the same form letter — which he said he did not consider very effective. He preferred to receive individually written letters, he said. Sounds like he does not know what activism looks like to most people.

In the end, I found out later, all the commissioners, except Commissioner Cross, who’s in the upper right in this screenshot, voted to stay the application from Crestone Energy. This was definitely a win for STAR, and Mike Foote, their attorney; the only better decision would have been a denial of the application. What a stay means is that the applicant, Crestone Energy, must develop a new plan which, as the commissioners stipulated, needs to have less potential impacts on the Aurora community. It did not appear that the commissioners gave any indication of what a new application must adhere to; so, we the public, are still pretty much left in the dark as to what will eventually happen. Will Crestone’s lawyers hobnob with the commissioners, out of sight of the public? Who knows…

The head commissioner, Jeff Robbins, pictured at the upper left, pointed out that around 300 people had attended the Zoom meeting. They definitely took note of how many people were watching — and commented that this had been the most viewed hearing in the ECMC’s short history.

The Aftermath

The next day (12/11/25), this article appeared in the Colorado Sun:

Planned drill site near Aurora Reservoir delayed by state regulators in a win for neighborhood group

which said it all: STAR had won the day. But, boy, it had been a long time coming…

However, the story is not over; and it will depend on the new plan that Crestone Energy develops, and then proposes to the ECMC, likely sometime in 2026.

Stay tuned…

Air quality monitoring, APCD, AQCC, CDPHE, ECMC, Environmental damage from O&G, Local government (city & county), Ozone pollution in Front Range, SB-181, Weld County

“The need to transition off fossil fuels”…a LTE hits a home run!

November 26, 2025 Rick Casey Leave a comment

In case you missed it, there was an impressive event that happened recently with regard to environmental activism: a Letter To the Editor (LTE) about the danger of fossil fuels was published in three local papers — Greeley Tribune; Loveland Reporter Herald, and Longmont Call Times — simultaneously! This is an unprecedented accomplishment, which deserves some recognition.

The author, Carol Hawkins, has been part of the Larimer Alliance for some time; and during that time, has sought a resolution to her situation, but has come round to the same grim realization of others in the community: until the state regulators of O&G see the light, and begin to limit the issuing of new drilling permits, local residents are almost powerless to stop them. All that SB-181 accomplished, it would seem, it to guarantee at least as 2,000 foot setback from any new well.

Below is Dr. Hawkins’ LTE, taken from the Greeley Tribune, 11/19/25:

Colorado faces a difficult choice, transition off fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy or continue to jeopardize our environment and health. Transition will cause economic and social disruption for workers and communities. Any “just transition” requires solutions that mitigate the negative consequences while simultaneously eliminating the deadly pollution caused by burning fossil fuels.

I have lived in Weld County since purchasing my house in 2017. I lived in Maine at the time, near the end of an ”unexpected journey” watching my partner die from Alzheimer’s. I decided to move back to Colorado where I had family and a history of living in the state since the early 1970s. I wanted familiar surroundings. I searched online and found the perfect bungalow, my retirement home, in Ault, a rural town in a good location between Greeley and Fort Collins. I had no idea of the influx of fracking about to come. Shortly after moving, I received a forced pooling notice. I went from grief and PTSD to a sense of doom. Fracking! What did this mean for my quiet life and my health?

The facts about fracking and the impacts were easy to find, but fighting the frack hasn’t been easy. Weld County, otherwise known as “Welled” County, remains the most polluted and fracked in the state. My neighbors, many who work in oil and gas, are mostly working class, and others are first-time home owners looking for affordable housing or long-time residents. Local government is staffed by those who appear unaffected by fracking. When wells were drilled next to the Highland School campus, located in the middle of town, I called the Ault Town Office and Weld County Oil and Gas to question why the drilling was so close to the school when SB 181 called for 2,000-foot setbacks. The Ault Town Office said that they had no knowledge of drilling near the school, although it was happening just down the street, and the Weld County Oil and Gas Office laughed off my reference to SB 181 with the comment “those rules are easy to get around.” And I’ve come to learn that he is right. All you have to do is look at the loopholes. One is home rule, the other is reverse setbacks.

I then turned to the state and began to protest permits, but soon learned that state regulators and the governor support the fossil fuel industry. However, outside of Colorado, a global consensus calls for a “just transition” away from fossil fuels. The planet is heating, driven by greenhouse gases from extracting and burning fossil fuels like oil and fracked gas. Agreements from COP28 called for net-zero emissions by 2050.

Current research, developed by analyzing efforts toward a “just transition” around the world, provides principles that guide policy development: governmental support, dedicated funding streams, strong and diverse coalitions, and economic diversification to address the short-term impacts and long-term needs of workers and communities.

Colorado must come together around this framework of principles for a “just transition,” but the transition from fossil fuels to renewables will still disrupt existing economies, and some communities may face economic hardship due to the loss of jobs and tax revenue from the fossil fuel industry. However, we must make the hard choice to experience the gains from a clean energy economy and healthy environment.

Colorado’s current environmental damage and health impacts are not sustainable and challenge communities reliant on oil and gas to make the hard choice — we need a “just transition” off of fossil fuels. Stop the permits and clean up the mess while supporting displaced workers and disproportionately impacted communities, like Ault.

[Carol Hawkins is a retired English professor who moved back to Colorado from Maine in 2017. She was served a forced pooling notice in 2018 and has been part of the resistance to fracking ever since. Her focus centers on health impacts and damage to our environment, with a particular interest in health care and job training for displaced oil and gas workers, along with support for disproportionately impacted communities like hers in Ault. Dr Hawkins noted that all three papers are owned by a single company, which could be a factor in her LTE appearing in all three simultaneously.]

350 Colorado, CO state regulatory agencies, ECMC, Environmental damage from O&G, SB-181

The fate of the Aurora Reservoir began today…

November 26, 2025 Rick Casey 4 Comments

Today the public comment period on the State Sunlight ECMC Decision Hearing began. It was hard to listen to…both physically, emotionally, mentally…

I joined the meeting when it started at 10:30, but it wasn’t long before the meeting itself was postponed to 11:15, due to absentee members.

Once it started again, the public then had to endure over an hour of testimony (including a lunch break) from the operators. The reader for this task spoke like he was reading a dictionary, and it was just about as interesting. Through all the verbiage, I basically heard assertions that, yes, the operator has complied with the rules and regulations, and, yes, all the experts we’ve hired assure us that this 32 wells to drilled on the Sunlight well pad are going to be totally safe. Funny…his delivery did not inspire the least confidence in what he was saying.

So, it wasn’t until well after lunch that the public — the citizens living near the reservoir who are going to be the most affected by all this drilling — began to have their say….and it went on and on and on…because over thirty people had signed up. This went on for over two hours, I believe…and though I did not hear everyone, I heard enough.

But it wasn’t until I went to the website for activist group leading the residents, STAR, for Save The Aurora Reservoir (savetheaurorareservoir.org), that I came across a startling image that conveys the horror and desperation that these residents are feeling.

[Note: click images for larger view]

Here is a Google map image of the reservoir, the nearby neighborhoods where many of the residents who testified live, and the nearby open lands where the drilling is proposed to occur:

Aurora Reservoir, and nearby neighborhoods

And here is a schematic of roughly the same area, showing the proposed horizontal drilling would be done:

One can well understand the anger, the frustration, the disbelief, and the sheer justified outrage that so many of those who testified directed at the ECMC commissioners. It is indeed hard to believe that that the Sunlight pad, the one that is directly southeast of the Reservoir, is proposed to be drilled right under the residential areas!

This does not feel like any kind of fair process; it feels like economic slavery under an oppressive regime that bows to the wishes of corporate greed of the oil and gas industry.

The hearings will go on for two more days…I can only pray that these commissioners will take to heart the pleas I heard today from these residents.

Here are more screenshots of the Zoom meeting, with some of the more outspoken persons who testified:

The Larimer Alliance will report the outcome. Though this is happening some distance from Larimer County, this could happen near us, such as the Century pad being proposed in Windsor; so it behooves us to pay attention to how these Commissioners make their decisions.

Air quality monitoring, APCD, CDPHE, CO state regulatory agencies, Environmental damage from O&G, General Environmental Reference, Ozone pollution in Front Range, SB-181

The Colorado Sun misses the mark

July 9, 2024 Rick Casey 1 Comment

or how the public continues to be confused over why our air pollution worsens…

This was a letter I sent to the Colorado Sun today in reaction to a misleading article about our ozone pollution problem..it is self-explanatory:

Re: the 7/9/24 story on “…hunt down one Colorado county’s toxic ozone producers” (by Michael Booth)

Dear Mr. Booth:

I am a subscribing member of the Colorado Sun, and am thankful that we have a reporter like you covering stories about the environment and regulatory enforcement.

However, the story that was published today “Researchers are surveilling land, air and space to hunt down one Colorado county’s toxic ozone producers” is somewhat misleading. If you are seeking to inform the public about the most effective ways in which to identify the sources of ozone in Weld County, please read on.

It is all well and good that Coloradoans are getting the assistance of federal agencies like NOAA’s aircraft and NASA’s satellites to help identify the worst sources of ozone precursors from O&G operations in Weld County. I have no doubt they will help…somewhat.

However, they will be one-time operations, which will not be a persistent tool that can be counted on to help us, month in and month out. The FRIPPE study which NOAA conducted back in 2014 was their last effort to assist Colorado in identifying the source of ozone precursors. It proved that O&G and vehicular exhaust both contribute, but did little to pinpoint specific operators in Weld County. Perhaps their efforts this time will do that; we shall see.

What is needed, though, is a permanent, on-going ground-based monitoring effort, which is measuring our air quality on a continuous basis. The instruments need to be reliable enough on which to base a strong regulatory program that includes provisions for regulatory enforcement actions, including cease-&-desist orders. The technology for doing this certainly exists, and has been put into use in Boulder County, Longmont, Erie and Broomfield (Commerce City had one for a year around 2021 but closed it down for reasons discussed below). The state regulatory agency that is in charge of monitoring our air quality, and enforcing regulatory action, is the APCD (Air Pollution Control Division) within the CDPHE (Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment).

It should interest us to learn why these four jurisdictions decided to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build their own air quality monitoring stations. They did so, starting in 2017, because of the distrust of these state agencies and the sincerity of their efforts; perhaps basic competency may have played a part as well. When the O&G industry had controlled the regulatory environment in this state for over half a century, it tends to have an effect on how well funded such regulatory efforts are. While SB-181, the historic law passed in 2019, did fundamentally change the mission of those regulations, there was nothing in that law that changed how much funding went into those regulatory changes; and certainly nothing about air quality monitoring. It is a problem that still needs to be corrected.

Unfortunately, the investment by these Front Range communities has not resulted in any improvement in our ozone pollution problem over the years. Why not? Shouldn’t this improved monitoring, and an abundance of data, have resulted in changes in state regulatory action?

Sad to say, it has not. There has not been one iota of reduction in emissions pollution. In fact, dozens of violations of emission permits have been documented by Earthworks, filmed in action by their OGI field operators, all of which were submitted to the APCD, which has seldom taken any action to contact the operators about them.

This lack of enforcement action by the APCD/CDPHE is slowly being recognized as the real impediment to progress on these environmental crimes. This was why the Green Latinos, who were instrumental in the acquisition of the continuous monitoring station that was in operation in Commerce City for a year around 2021, decided to shut it down. Even though they could have continued to operate it, they decided not to do so because their data was effectively ignored by these state agencies. Their refusal to continue to monitor should be recognized as a sign of protest against injustice: the injustice of these regulatory agencies to do their job, which is to protect our environment against such polluters.

The Larimer Alliance, with whom I volunteer, has been trying to get a continuous monitoring station here in Larimer County. We want to understand where our ozone precursors are originating, which we strongly suspect are coming mostly from Weld County. If we can get a continuous monitoring station installed, and begin to quantify those precursors, we feel confident we will have the scientific data to prove this.

But it will be of little avail if the state regulatory agencies do nothing with the data. And that will be our next political barrier to overcome, before we start to make progress on curbing our extreme ozone pollution.

Sincerely,

Rick Casey

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