Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission voted unanimously this week to end routine natural gas flaring and venting and established the nation’s most stringent setback requirements for drilling near homes and schools. Dan Haley, president and CEO of Colorado Oil and Gas Association, told E&E News after Monday’s action that Colorado now has “the toughest oil and natural gas development regulations in the country.” E&E News added, “It was a landmark rule and a win for environmental groups, and advocates for Colorado’s approach to regulating the industry hope to make similar inroads in Texas and New Mexico.”
The commission approved a 2,000-foot setback between newly drilled wells and surrounding homes and other setbacks from bodies of water and wildlife habitat. Colorado’s oil industry flares only a small percentage of its natural gas (“the amount of flaring and methane leakage is far higher in New Mexico and Texas”), and the commission told E&E News that producers in the state basically didn’t object to the new rules that take effect Jan. 15, 2021.
Denver Post said Alaska and Colorado now are the only states that ban routine venting and flaring of natural gas from oil and gas wells and other equipment.