Kudos to The Daily Sentinel’s Mike Saccone for chronicling Mesa County’s participation as a named party in the rule-making process now underway before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission “Meis to rip proposed gas board rules,” May 10.

Having reviewed the county’s preliminary pre-hearing statement, it appears to me that Mike missed one key point.

First, what Mike did not report is that Mesa County (as well as La Plata and Gunnison Counties) also joined in supporting a procedural motion by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association intended to preserve all legal rights for both proponents and opponents of the proposed new rules. We can therefore anticipate that — regardless of what the final rules turn out to be — all sides are preparing to litigate them in court if necessary.

Second, while Mesa County Commissioner Craig Meis may indeed intend to “rip” and “attack” the new rules as being inconsistent with the COGCC’s statutory mandate, the text of Mesa County’s position statement is not nearly so adversarial. Rather, Mesa County is raising a virtual smorgasborg of valid issues which need to be addressed.

However, there remains some confusion as to how long the new drilling application approval process will take. Where a Comprehensive Drilling Plan is required, the process will likely take longer than presently. Where an application is already covered by such a plan, approval is likely to be faster — even with the additional consultations with the Colorado Departments of Wildlife and Public Health and Environment required by the legislation.

Nevertheless, the question remains as to whose interests our commissioners are attempting to serve — Club 20’s, Cordilleran Compliance Services’ or the public health and welfare of Mesa County.

While faster permit approval certainly benefits the oil and gas interests that dominate Club 20 (upon whose executive committee Meis now sits) and the small oil and gas operators who comprise his consulting clients, it is difficult to fathom how faster approval promotes the public health and welfare of Mesa County — particularly when the current process (as also noted in Mesa County’s position statement and as Jon Peacock will testify before the COGCC) now allows our local governmental designee insufficient time to properly review and comment on applications received.

BILL HUGENBERG
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.