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COGCC FINANCIAL ASSURANCES

RULEMAKING HEARING

January 20 and 21

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) will hold virtual hearings on their staff’s proposed Financial Assurance Rules. Two online sessions will happen on Thursday, January 20 and one on Friday, January 21. A Zoom sign-up link for making public comments in those sessions can be found here. The deadline to sign up for those sessions is Tuesday, January 18 at 12:00 Noon. Written comments can be entered on the same form at the bottom of the page, and will become part of the public record of these hearings.

It is clear the O&G industry wants to maintain the status quo of the State subsidizing their operations by keeping down the cost of bonding for the recovery and restoration of their well sites. Their estimates of what the full cost to actually clean up a wellpad at the end of its service are woefully inadequate. O&G’s preference for blanket bonding of multiple sites rather than coverage for individual wells is also a problem. Our allies at LOGIC have provided this link which tells the tale of what a mess this can be, and the cost to Colorado taxpayers.

We join in asking for these changes to COGCC staff’s draft of Financial Assurance regulations for the O&G industry in Colorado:

• The need for bonds that cover all costs of plugging, cleanup and reclamation of every well in the state.
• Stop the practice of “blanket bonds,” effectively a public subsidy for clean-up costs that perpetuates the orphaned well problem
• Current financial assurances rules perpetuate the industry’s scam, artificially keeping wells “economical” as operators discount the true cleanup costs, letting the public pick up the bill instead.
• The COGCC needs to add a per-well fee on operations in the state to generate revenue to clean up orphaned wells.
• Require full cost bonds for all new wells
• Require full costs bonds for all transferred wells
• Require operators to generate a full cost bond for all existing wells in the state in a reasonable amount of time.
• Require all of the State’s financial assurances rules apply to O&G operations and drilling on federal public lands in Colorado.

Sign up to speak at the COGCC hearings by January 18 at Noon!

Our fundraiser to support legal counsel at these hearings

Stands at $2,495.00 of our goal of $4,000.00

For all you do our thanks!

A more detailed description of this campaign can be found here.

Check out relevant events on our Calendar Page!