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Initiative 97 is Operating Under a New Name: Proposition 112

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In the last several weeks, we’ve spilled lots of ink discussing ballot Initiative 97, an anti-fracking ordinance designed to devastate the Colorado oil and gas industry utterly. Unfortunately, as the November election looms nearer, Initiative 97 is coming closer to fruition. Having hurdled the petition process, now initiative 97 is an official part of the ballot in the fall. That means a fancy new name change.

Make no mistake, though, even though 97 is now operating under the new bureaucratic title — proposition 112 — the inner workings of this dangerous legislation have not changed one iota.

Here are the straightforward facts surrounding proposition 112.

If you’re unfamiliar with prop 112, you can read the basics here. Essentially, the legislation aims to increase the mandatory setback for oil and gas projects to an unworkable 2,5000 feet from occupied structures or anywhere deemed a “vulnerable area.”

Proposition 112 By the Numbers

According to a fact sheet released by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, the economic impact of Proposition 112 drums up some pretty scary numbers:

43,000

The number of jobs lost in the first year after passage. Those are more than just oil and gas jobs, too. Industries across the spectrum would be negatively affected. Thousands of retail, construction, and healthcare jobs could be lost.

147,800

The total number of jobs lost by 2030. As much as 77 percent of lost jobs would fall outside the oil and gas industry.

$700 million

The potential loss of revenue for Colorado’s schools every year. More than 9,000 teaching and government jobs rely on that income.

$1 billion

The annual loss of tax revenue to the state of Colorado, a deficit that translates to higher taxes and less efficient infrastructure.

$26 billion

The damage to Colorado’s state economy every year by 2030.

$147.6 billion

Personal income lost over the next decade. That’s money out of voters’ wallets.

Those numbers add up to a pretty scary decade for Colorado should prop 112 see the light of day.

Do Your Duty on Election Day

As this economic tremor sets up to rumble through the state, it’s more important than ever to divorce the truth about Proposition 112 from the baseless vitriol spouted by media outlets intent on stirring up controversy. The simple truth is that passage of Prop 112 would decimate the Colorado economy, possibly beyond repair.

Rather than work alongside the oil and gas industry to curb methane emissions (a project the industry itself is taking very seriously), anti-fracking advocates would prefer a shortcut solution that would cause far more havoc than it solved. When the time comes to cast your vote in November, remember to think about your community at large, not the headlines that fill up your social streams.

Vote no on proposition 112.

Walker Stapleton. Image courtesy of Wikimiedia Commons

Colorado Gubernatorial Candidates Weigh-in On Oil and Gas

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Last week at the Colorado Oil and Gas Association’s annual Energy Summit, both Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton and Democrat Jared Polis addressed their positions about Colorado’s current and future energy policy. Despite three disruptions from protesters, who were eventually escorted out of the event, Polis laughed off the situation and discussed his vague plans for the Rocky Mountain State while Stapleton focused on the numbers. Continue reading→

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United States Leads the World in Reducing Carbon Emissions

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When Donald Trump led the United States out of the Paris climate agreement last June, he was lambasted by the left for putting the national and global environment in peril. A little over a year later, however, it would appear that the numbers are skewing the other direction.

The U.S.A. Is #1

Over the course of 2017, the United States economy grew by three percent. Specifically, the oil and gas sector ramped up production after a multi-year slump. The red alerts splashed across the front page, and the (apparent) crowds of protestors clustering around drilling and fracking projects might have you thinking that this growth is also triggering a huge jump in hazardous pollution.

If that’s what you thought, you’d be wrong. Over the course of 2017, the United States reduced the emissions of carbon gas by half a percent. In the grand scheme of things, that’s a massive drop in the output of pollution.

It’s not a fluke, either. Since 2005, the United States has reduced carbon emissions by an astonishing 758 million metric tons. To put that in perspective, America eliminated nearly as much carbon emissions as the entire European Union (770 million metric tons in reduced carbon emissions).

Meanwhile, On the Other Side of the Planet …

Let’s speak plainly: every single one of the countries who entered the Paris Accord has failed to meet their goal for reduced carbon emissions. In fact, only 5 of the nations — Luxembourg, Netherlands, France, Portugal, and Sweden — have come within 50 percent of their planned goals.

The worst offenders are China and India, manufacturing nations who are pumping 10 tons of greenhouse gas for every ton that the United States eliminates.

The Solution Is Action, Not Signatures

When it comes down to it, exiting the Paris climate agreement didn’t really change the course charted a decade ago by corporations operating in the United States. Motivated not by federal regulation, but a sense of community, America’s companies have reduced carbon emissions of their own accord.

The numbers will tell you that no amount of government posturing can fix the environment. It doesn’t take regulation, it takes a collective desire to change.

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What Does the Caspian Sea Deal Mean for the Future of Oil and Gas?

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During the reign of the Soviet Union, the Caspian Sea was considered a natural border, evenly divided by Russia and Iran. In the years following the fall of the Soviet Union, however, the Caspian found itself straddled by five new countries. For decades, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan have vigorously disputed ownership of the land-locked sea. On Sunday, however, the nations took their first step toward a peaceful distribution of the Caspian’s vast natural resources signing the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea.

The landmark agreement boils down to a mathematical formula that will divide the seabed of the Caspian between the five nations while retaining the surface of the sea as international water. 

The Caspian’s Impact on Oil and Gas

First and foremost, the Caspian Sea deal creates a new avenue for the flow of oil and gas back and forth between Europe and Asia. Several Caspian nations have begun work on pipelines that will swiftly carry extracted oil and natural gas east and west. This development has the potential to expose a lot more customers to Russia and the Central Asian energy market.

The Caspian Sea deal is also significant because it brings with it the possibility of massive oil reserves finally seeing the light of day. Estimates put the Caspian Sea’s resources around “48 billion barrels of oil and 8.7 trillion cubic meters of gas in proven or probable reserves.”

Those vast reserves paired with the multiple pipelines under construction could turn the Caspian Sea into an oil and gas powerhouse.

It’ll Still Take Time to Get Things Fully Sorted Out

If all of that sounds like enough to make US oil and gas producers nervous, it shouldn’t (yet). Consider that the basic idea for the Caspian Sea deal took twenty years to get this far. There’s still plenty of bickering to come as all five nations work out the results of the formula. From there, it will take years to establish a working infrastructure in the region. That’s to say nothing of the expert finagling that will be required to sort out a long-term deal. 

In five years time, the Caspian Sea may well have transformed into a noteworthy destination on the oil and gas landscape. For the moment, though, there’s still plenty of ground to cover.