Bloomberg Environment,
Tripp Baltz,
September 12, 2019-
Colorado’s oil-rich Weld County has taken steps to encourage more drilling. Neighboring Boulder County is working to significantly reduce it. Both are acting under a new state law that gives local governments more control over energy production.
What happens in Weld County matters because it accounts for 89% of Colorado’s oil production and about one-third of its natural gas. Even so, the industry sees trouble ahead as Boulder and other jurisdictions start move to restrict oil and gas development. The new law (S.B. 181) ends the state’s preemption of local land use authority in the energy sector….