Category Archives: New Ft Collins O&G regs

City of Fort Collins, New Ft Collins O&G regs

A priority for Fort Collins City Council Going Forward

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The following was submitted to the opinion section of the Fort Collins Coloradoan following their article on April 30 which solicited citizen ideas for priorities for the City Council.

Editor:

I read with interest the article in the Coloradoan on Sunday, April 30, looking at the various priorities the Fort Collins City Council are working on. I don’t fault the goals, nor the intention to try and arrive at the best solution across a range of difficult issues. 

Of particular interest to me is the commitment of the City toward establishing a regulatory scheme for oil and gas operations. The City Council approved amendments to their land use code on April 4, focusing on setbacks and zoning to restrict the actual territory within city limits available for oil and gas development. This is a good first step, but by itself does not represent comprehensive regulation. While I am aware our fair city may be on the edge of the Denver-Julesburg Basin, and very few legacy sites are actually present within the City’s growth management area, it would be naive to say we are not still at risk to have further exploration occurring within the greater Fort Collins area. The oil and gas industry organizations presented their own argument prior to April 4 that opposed even the use of setback and zoning to constrain their operations, suggesting there may be more brewing beneath the surface than immediately meets the eye. 

I am a member of the Larimer Alliance for Health, Safety, & the Environment, and we advocated for more detailed regulations. At present, we are communicating with City Council and Staff for the modifications to municipal code that may fill the gaps. Fort Collins is likely to be annexing territory to the East of current city limits, if not to the North as well, where the two legacy operations have caused considerable problems for residents. Given that there is substantial industry interest in territory around Wellington and Windsor, the notion that some oil and gas activity may eventually find its way into the future growth management area of Fort Collins is not at all beyond the realm of possibility. 

As well, the City and County should also be looking at more comprehensive, real time and networked air quality monitoring systems beyond the canister type of site-based sensors that can tell of an issue after it has already happened. The reality is that while there may be minimal oil and gas activity destined to happen within Fort Collins and Larimer County, we are heavily impacted by the emissions from over 20,000 wells in Weld County that have left the Front Range with some of the worst air quality in the country. And the greatest source of precursors to surface level atmospheric ozone, which grievously affects the health of our citizens, are the emissions of oil and gas sites concentrated so heavily to our immediate East. 

Thank you.

Ed Behan

Fort Collins, Colorado

Boulder County, General Environmental Reference, Local government (city & county), New Ft Collins O&G regs, New O&G regs for Larimer Cty, SB-181

The story of how Boulder County succeeded in defeating Extraction Energy’s attempt at a forced pooling

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This story below comes from John McDonaugh, whom I asked if I could publish his comments on this issue, which was announced in a press release by Boulder County on May 4, 2023, which can be read at:

Boulder County Declares Victory on Highly Contested Application to Drill County-Owned Minerals

This is why the Larimer Alliance continues to encourage Larimer County to take a similar tough stand with the O&G industry. We all know we must transition away from fossil fuels — the sooner the better — yet this industry continues to attempt to new drill new wells — even attempting to force Boulder County into a forced pooling. So here is the back story on how Boulder Country succeeded in this particular case. –Rick Casey

Yes, Boulder’s success demonstrates the power and necessity of hope and commitment. However, their victory in this hard-fought battle required more than that:  Boulder played smart. They played tough. They didn’t acquiesce to half-measures or settle for political green-washing or low-hanging fruit (battery lawn tool rebates, anyone?).  They utilized a multi-prong approach that combined education, direct action, political pressure, creative regulatory drafting, savvy legal maneuvering, and “bottom-line” awareness with a relentless, unwavering focus on their ultimate objective:  Prevent O&G development in Boulder County.  

Take a closer look at the sequence.  Extraction Energy initially (c. 2017) pressed for 32 O&G wells and ancillary facilities to be located on Boulder County land.  Boulder firmly opposed the project and supported the enactment of SB 19-181 which gave local governments broad authority to regulate O&G development. Once SB 19-181 became law, Boulder County promptly undertook drafting and enactment of well-crafted, extremely powerful, local O&G regs.  Once in place, those strong local O&G regs undercut Extraction’s legal position, and rendered the proposed in-County O&G development (and Extraction’s battle to approve it) infeasible and uneconomic.  

Extraction Energy then attempted to develop Boulder County’s O&G resources via directional drilling from the Blue Paintbrush pad located just on the Weld County side of the Weld/Boulder County line.  Extraction figured that since SB 19-181 only allowed local governments to regulate the surface impacts of O&G development (and Weld County was, as always, in favor of the development) they could avoid compliance with the Boulder County regs by moving the O&G surface facilities outside Bounder County’s jurisdiction.  However, regs aside, Extraction still needed to acquire the subsurface mineral rights below Boulder County land.  Once again, Boulder County and its residents held firm to their objective and overwhelmingly rejected Extraction’s mineral rights purchase offer.    

But Extraction Energy wasn’t finished.  They next went to the COGCC seeking a “Forced Pooling” order which would require Boulder County to allow Extraction to develop the minerals as part of Extraction’s broader reservoir development plan. Boulder County and its residents then fought Extraction’s Forced Pooling attempt on multiple fronts:  politically (via proposed anti-FP legislation), administratively, legally, and in the “court of public opinion”.  They ultimately prevailed (at least until another oil company effort comes along).  However, Boulder County leaders and residents now know they can — through focused diligence, savvy strategies, and hard work —prevail against O&G industry overreach.  Equally important, so do the oil companies…who will likely look elsewhere for “greener pastures” and “easier pickings” the next time around.  Why play the Kansas City Chiefs when you can play the Chicago Bears? 

Boulder County and its residents showed what it takes. Playing against oil companies and their political enablers is tough.  It’s often unpleasant.  It’s taxing on multiple personal and professional levels. The other side is smart, well-financed, well-connected, and extremely tenacious. They will press their objectives, irrespective of the broader public good, until they encounter firm and effective resistance. The knife goes in until it meets steel. That’s not “cynicism”, it’s reality.  

If we environmental advocates truly do our jobs, some folks — including some folks in power and, sadly, even some so-called “environmentalists” — won’t like us very much.  However, if we remain true to our course, play smart, build and leverage effective coalitions, and call out industry BS and political inaction when necessary, they will respect us and will fear what we may accomplish. And, to my mind, that’s far more important to our world, to our community, and to the most vulnerable among us. 

If a community and its leaders settle for empty promises, election-year greenwashing, unrelated low-hanging fruit (e.g. a few more bike racks, EV chargers, lawn tool rebates), and other placebos that won’t move the climate change, ozone, and toxic emissions needle, they will get exactly what they deserve.  The oil industry will see to that.  

Boulder County and its residents showed us the way. Let’s heed and learn from their example. 

Thanks for all you and LA have done and continue to do in our “neck of the woods” on this critical issue.  Keep up the good fight!  

—  John McDonagh

John is another Old Retired Guy who lives in Fort Collins (and a former state government enforcement attorney, oil industry regulator, oil industry senior counsel, and Federal agency senior environmental counsel). 

City of Fort Collins, Local government (city & county), New Ft Collins O&G regs

Letter submitted by Larimer Alliance and other allied groups to Fort Collins City Council regarding draft oil and gas regulations

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The following letter was submitted to Fort Collins City Council regarding the pending draft regulations for oil and gas development within the context of the evolving Land Development Code. It has been signed by the Larimer Alliance, Sierra Club Poudre Canyon Group, 350 Colorado, and the Fort Collins Sustainability Group. If you hover your cursor over the bottom of the first page, you will see arrow prompts to access the rest of the pages.

Joint-Env-Org-OG-Reg-Ltr-to-FC-City-Council-FINAL12-17-2022

City of Fort Collins, Local government (city & county), New Ft Collins O&G regs

A Summary of the Fort Collins City Council deliberations over draft Oil & Gas Regulations

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The following summary was prepared by Rick Casey with input from others who attended the Fort Collins City Council meeting on December 20, when the first reading of revised draft oil and gas regulations took place. I will let Rick’s excellent account speak for itself:

This is a quick summary of the city council meeting I attended,  where the first reading of the proposed O&G regulations was discussed. Kevin Cross asked if I could write this up, so I did.

Two other members of the Larimer Alliance (LA) attended (Ed Behan and John McDonagh), as well as Kevin Cross (KC), who presented on behalf of the FCSG. Another woman, Barbara Goldman, also spoke to the regulations on her own behalf. She urged the Council to simply ban all O&G activity within city limits.

After waiting for the agenda item to come up at around 7pm, the three Larimer Alliance members all spoke against it, mostly on the basis of the approval process being too compressed for meaningful public participation. On behalf of the FCSG, KC said much the same, and also mentioned the lack of financial assurance in them, in order to guarantee the O&G operator will be able to properly plug and abandon the well at its end of life. Lamentably, public commenters were limited to two minutes each, hardly enough time to make a meaningful comment. 

Once public comment was done, two city staff members who have worked on the issue briefed the Council. They showed a map that illustrated how much land will be “drillable” under the new regs (which is quite limited), and reviewed, in fair detail but quickly, the work that staff had done on this issue up to this point. Council members then commented on the proceedings. 

The Council approved the first reading, but delayed the second reading until April 4, 2023. I assume this means that revisions to the regulations can still be made, but I don’t know how much public input will be possible.

In hindsight, the LA felt satisfied that their detailed critique of the first draft of the regulations had been well considered by city staff, which resulted in the second draft, published prior the meeting. 

The video recording can be seen here: 

Fort Collins City Council Meeting 12/20/22

The LA Steering Committee will be considering its options in the meantime. 

— Rick

(Footnote: the comments made by representatives of the Larimer Alliance, Fort Collins Sustainability Group, and other community members appear around 1:56:35 in the recording)