Drilling advances prompt escalating fight in Colo.

DENVER — New technology is putting oil and gas drills closer to populated areas than ever before — creating tension in Colorado over who regulates where drilling can and can't be done.

The escalating dilemma has state lawmakers considering whether to step into a standoff between energy companies and Colorado communities as the oil and gas industry creeps ever closer to neighborhoods, schools and streams.

Local governments concerned with what they see as encroachment in the forms of horizontal drilling and fracking have responded by imposing new regulations on drilling rigs.

The industry cried foul, prompting Attorney General John Suthers, a Republican, to warn Arapahoe and El Paso counties along Colorado's densely-populated Front Range to back off.

Suthers, writing on behalf of the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, which oversees state rules, told Arapahoe County that "responsible government requires uniform regulation" — in other words, that the state had jurisdiction and local officials couldn't go their own way.

Arapahoe officials changed course. And El Paso's county commission is expected to make a decision this month.

Politicians from both parties have suggested that they'll rally to the side of the energy companies, which employ some 190,000 people in Colorado and contribute more than $18 billion a year to the state economy, according to industry estimates.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, a geologist, said in his State of the State address that his administration would work with various counties to soothe tensions.

"The state can't have 64 or even more different sets of rules" for drilling, Hickenlooper said.

Republican House Speaker Frank McNulty hinted at the same in his opening remarks to his chamber.

"While we do respect local control, we understand that there are areas that have historically been the responsibility of the state, including the development of traditional energy," McNulty said. "This session, we will fight to preserve the historic relationship between the state of Colorado and energy development."

The head of the oil and gas commission, Dave Neslin, said local regulations "impede the responsible and balanced development of our oil and gas industry."

State primacy in drilling regulation won't be an easy sell, though.