Western Slope
West Slope Miners Protest Coal Bill
“You might wonder why I got all the applause,” he said speaking to a crowd of hundreds. “It’s (because) I’m just one of the coal miners here. I’m one of the ones … afraid this bill is going to do away with my job.” Winey was one of several coal miners who spoke to members of the Colorado PUC yesterday in Grand Junction during a public input session on the fallout of the Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act.
31Aug2010 | admin | 1 comment | Continued
State’s Oil and Gas Activity Heats Up
All 14 parcels offered by the BLM at Thursday’s lease sale were sold, generating $2,038,560, or an average of $207 per acre. A Mesa County parcel received the highest per-acre bid at $1,090 for 157 acres north of Collbran. In total, Colorado is on pace to issue 6,500 permits this year, the second most ever.
13Aug2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Reeling BP Looks to Resume Colorado Drilling, Wind Projects
A BP America spokeswoman this week said the company is eyeing a resumption of coal-bed methane drilling in La Plata County this fall, although the decision has more to do with a hoped-for rebound in natural gas prices and some resolution with regard to local drilling regulations.
17Jun2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Garfield County Wants State to Reconsider
Drilling Concerns
Garfield County’s oil and gas liaison, Judy Jordon, argues that the state is more interested in discrediting consultant and geologist, Geoffrey Thyne, than resolving issues around drilling in the West Divide Creek area south of Silt.
15Jun2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Oil and Gas Rich Wyoming Approves Frac’ing Rules — Will Colorado Be Next?
The question now is whether Colorado, which has its own vocal critics of the hydrualic fracturing process, will follow suit. “This ruling was the right thing to do. One look at the Gulf of Mexico is proof that things don’t always turn out the way drilling companies expect,” said Western Resource Advocates staff attorney Dan Heilig.
9Jun2010 | admin | 3 comments | Continued
Colorado Oil and Gas Regulatory Agency Backlogged With Gas Contamination Cases
“Some of [the cases] date back several years, and I don’t want to make excuses, that shouldn’t be the case,” David Neslin, executive director of the COGCC which is charged with permitting and regulating natural gas and oil drilling in Colorado. “We do need to do a better job at bringing timely enforcement matters, and we’re committed to doing so.”
14May2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Williams Cuts Natural Gas Production on West Slope
Tulsa-based Williams Cos. said its Piceance Basin natural-gas production was reduced over the past 12 months by 11 percent to 632 million cubic feet a day in the first quarter of 2010.
6May2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
New Concerns Over Possible Methane Gas Leak Near Silt
The state is investigating the possibility that methane from natural gas development leaked into two domestic water wells in an area that the COGCC previously investigated in connection with the West Divide Creek gas seep of 2004.
28Mar2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Reasons for State’s Drilling Slump Depend on Who (and WHERE) You Ask
One can understand why energy stakeholders on the West Slope are particularly sensitive to the drilling regulations issue. In fact, the divide in thinking on the subject between the eastern and western halves of the state seems at times nearly as large as the mountains and passes that geographically divide Colorado.
3Mar2010 | admin | 3 comments | Continued
Shell Abandons Quest for Yampa Water Rights
Citing project delays due to the global recession as the primary reason, the energy giant still left open the possibility of pursuing the project down the road. Water advocates say oil shale extraction would require too much of the precious resource in Western Colorado.
2Mar2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Mesa County Drained by Loss of Energy Jobs
Oil and gas job loses rippled through other businesses. Unemployment spiked from 3.7 percent in the fall of 2008 to 9 percent today, but there are signs of an upturn; some companies are starting to hire back workers after nothing but layoffs for some time.
11Feb2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Garfield County Set for Gas-Well ‘Intervention’
But the “intervention,” as it is formally called, would strictly be aimed at Antero’s request to be allowed to drill wells at a higher density than currently is permitted, in an area that apparently is outside the boundaries of Battlement Mesa.
2Feb2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Williams Challenges GarCo Authority on Cuttings
The energy company contends the county requirement runs contrary to COGCC rules allowing burial of the cuttings on site if they don’t exceed state standards for contaminants. It argues that state authority preempts county authority in the case.
17Jan2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Drilling Activity to Remain Flat in Garfield County for 2010
According to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Garfield County produced more than 390 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas through the month of October, 2009, compared to more than 520 bcf for all of 2008.
11Jan2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
BLM Gives OK for Drilling Near Rulison Blast Site
In its environmental assessment of the Noble drilling plan, the agency said both the state and the DOE are adequately addressing issues surrounding the natural gas development near Project Rulison. It will, however, ask the Energy Department to provide long-term monitoring of one of the proposed wells.
22Dec2009 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Geothermal Part of Colorado Lease Sale
for First Time
The February 11th auction includes one parcel of 799 acres with subsurface Federal mineral rights which will be offered for geothermal development in Chaffee County, near the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort west of Buena Vista.
21Dec2009 | admin | 0 comments | Continued-
Why is Dirty Energy Still So Cheap?
The clean tech sector has experienced remarkable success in the past few years, yet there still remains one huge roadblock from mass implementation – cheap fossil fuels. Some may think this is simply a matter of free-market capitalism at work. The real truth is that petroleum and coal industries continue to receive massive subsidies from governments around the world, while renewable energy firms receive only a small fraction of that amount.
READ THE FULL POST »
The coal industry, indeed the entire fossil fuel industry, needs to take note of state and federal politics. There ...
shannon,
In the US the tax subisides to alternative energy far exceed fossil fuels according to the enclosed article and in ...
OK. Let's do a little exercise here. Fossil fuels supply 87% of U.S. energy use, while renewables provide ...
I love this website. Though I live in MA, I go here for all the articles on energy at the ...
Did I miss something? If you have more people, you need to buy more food, more clothes, more tickets to ...