Two House Democrats joined Republicans in stopping the bill
Two Colorado House Democrats, Representatives Paul Rosenthal and Ed Vigil, joined House Republicans in stopping HB 1355 Monday. In a form that passed out of committee last month, HB 1355 granted cities and counties new powers to limit the location of drilling rigs through zoning. Realizing that the bill would not make it through the full House, the bill was changed to reaffirm local authority regarding noise, traffic and visual impairment surrounding the wells, reports Denver Business Journal.
Republican members of the House said the wording of the amendment opened the possibility that local governments could ban drilling under the reaffirmed rights the bill mentions.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, stood against his own party on the bill, saying it was better to wait for impending court decisions from the Colorado Supreme Court before moving ahead with new legislation. The governor also formed a task force in 2014 meant to find a compromise between local governments, the state government, and oil and gas companies in the state; the recommendations from that task force are still being implemented.
“My inclination is that we should let this process work,” Hickenlooper said, speaking against both HB 1355 and HB 1310, which increases the liability of drillers in the cases of earthquakes and other natural events. “I’m not against all legislation. But we’re close to getting a verdict from the Supreme Court … Let’s see where we are and make sure this is what people want.”
Representative Cole Wist said that if the purpose of the bill was to do nothing more than reassert existing laws for local governments, then the effort amounted simply to a messaging bill that was a “statement that our governor’s policy has failed us.”
“The defeat reaffirms decades-old Colorado law and policy that sets bright lines that recognize the unique aspects of oil and gas location, surface and mineral private property rights and development,” said Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. “It also reaffirms the state’s primacy over oil and gas production in Colorado, which was discussed and reaffirmed during the governor’s task force, during the [Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission] task force rule-making and in earlier Supreme Court rulings.”
