GOP pleads in vain for caution on new energy regs

An eleventh-hour effort by Senate Republicans to gauge the potentially crippling impact of sweeping new regulations on Colorado's booming energy economy died Monday at the hands of ruling Democrats.

Killed on a party-line vote was a resolution authored by the GOP's Sen. Bill Cadman and House Democrat Rep. Wes McKinley, calling a cost analysis of the potential effect of pending new rules on oil and gas prices. Cadman, of Colorado Springs, told colleagues on the Senate floor that the regulations--soon to be released by the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission at the behest of Gov. Bill Ritter--could reduce oil and gas exploration by 20 percent to 30 percent and drive up the price of those commodities nationwide.

"Reductions of those quantities (of oil and gas production)...will impact prices, they will impact supply," Cadman said. "It's important that we have a review."

Democrats also rejected an amendment to the bill that would have required the commission to hold hearings on the impact of the regulations in the different regions of Colorado that have some of the highest concentrations of oil and gas exploration. The amendment by Republican Sen. Ken Kester, of Las Animas, sought commission hearings in all Colorado basins.

To the surprise of some members, at least one senator representing one of those regions spoke against the amendment for holding hearings in different locales.

"In order to have them make the deadline and ... (given) the time constraints that they're under, there's no way that the entire proceedings can be moved throughout the state," said Sen. Gail Schwartz, an Aspen Democrat whose vast district includes the San Luis Valley.

Since last year, legislative Republicans have been warning against moves by the Ritter administration and by his legislative Democrat allies to rein oil and gas exploration--now the state's largest industry and the creator of some of Colorado's highest-paying jobs. A study by the Colorado School of Mines found that the industry generates some $23 billion a year for the state's economy.

Republicans have rapped the administration for what they call a "seismic shift" represented by the governor's recent appointments to the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. GOP lawmakers say the new commission members are drafting rules that will make oil and gas exploration and production more problematic and expensive. At the same time, environmental activists supported by the Ritter administration are pushing a statewide ballot issue to raise taxes on the industry. The net effect, Republicans say, will be to curb production and destabilize the energy economy.