DENVER (AP) - The Latest on tougher oil and gas regulations in Colorado (all times local):
2:50 p.m.
Colorado’s Democratic governor is offering little sympathy to oil and gas executives worried about tighter state restrictions on drilling.
Jared Polis told an industry meeting Wednesday that international markets and instability abroad have more impact on oil and gas than the state’s new approach to regulation.
Polis signed a law in April making public health and safety the state’s top priority instead of promoting production.
Dan Haley, president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, asked Polis several times to respond to industry concerns about its standing in the state. The governor eventually replied he values industry jobs but added that they’re part of a diverse state economy.
Polis argued the new law brought stability to the industry by heading off more drastic restrictions on where wells can be drilled.
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12 a.m.
Colorado has just begun rewriting its oil and gas rules under a new law that flips the state’s priority from producing energy to protecting the public. But industry defenders and critics are already testing the legislation’s limits.
Officials in energy-friendly Weld County say the law gives the county complete control over the location of new wells in unincorporated areas. That could challenge the state’s attempts to tighten regulations.
Just across the Weld County line in Longmont, environmental activists are trying to use the law to revive the city’s ban on hydraulic fracturing, which the courts threw out under the previous laws.
The new law became effective in April. It also gives cities and counties new powers to regulate the drilling locations.
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