American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019 - 126

group says.
According to court documents,
among the plaintiffs' core arguments
was that BLM "arbitrarily failed to analyze the direct, indirect and cumulative
impacts of GHG emissions (from) oil
and gas leasing."
BLM countered that quantifying GHG
emissions at the leasing stage would be
overly speculative. But Judge Contreras
rejected that assertion, finding instead
that the administrative record "was replete
with information on oil and gas development and GHG emissions."
Consequently, Contreras remanded to
the agency the environmental assessments
BLM conducted for the Wyoming lease
sales, and enjoined the agency from
issuing any drilling permits for those
leases while redoing its environmental
analyses. However, the judge denied the
plaintiffs' request that he vacate the

Wyoming leases.
An Associated Press report on the ruling quotes WildEarth Guardians Climate
Program Director Jeremy Nichols calling
it "the Holy Grail we have been after, especially with oil and gas. It calls into
question the legality of oil and gas leasing
that is happening everywhere."
And in an editorial published by Fox
Business Network, Phil Flynn, a senior energy analyst at the PRICE Futures Group,
worries, "This ruling could open a Pandora's
box that could spread to other states and
be a risk to the shale revolution."
But Harry Weiss, an environmental
lawyer based in Philadelphia quoted by
AP counters, "This decision should not
be interpreted as a ban on leasing activities.
The court is not ruling on whether it's
thumbs up or thumbs down. The court
simply is grading how the administration
did analyzing the issues."

Kathleen Sgamma, president of the
Western Energy Alliance, which along
with the Petroleum Association of Wyoming
intervened in the case on behalf of BLM,
expresses confidence that Contreras' ruling
will be overturned on appeal.
"This judge has ignored decades of
legal precedent in this ruling," she says.
"The judge basically is asking BLM to
prematurely take a wild guess on how
many wells will be developed on leases."
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon
also criticizes the ruling. "Our country's
efforts to reduce carbon should not center
on the livelihoods of those committed
workers and industries who seek to provide reliable and affordable energy, especially when we don't look to the detrimental effects of other expansive industries," he says in a statement. "Bringing
our country to its knees is not the way to
thwart climate change."
❒

COGA Demonstrates Industry's Impact
DENVER-Facing a major legislative
challenge to how the oil and gas industry
is regulated in the state, the Colorado Oil
& Gas Association has released an economic impact study demonstrating how
the upstream and midstream sectors are
critically important spokes in the wheel
of Colorado's economy.
The study, which was conducted by
the Global Energy Management Program
at the University of Colorado Denver
Business School utilizing U.S. Bureau
of Economic Analysis data from 2017,
found the upstream and midstream sectors
alone were responsible for providing
89,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs,
$13.5 billion in state gross domestic
product, and nearly $1 billion in public
revenue that supported Colorado schools,
social assistance programs, parks and
water infrastructure.
"This report demonstrates how a
strong oil and natural gas sector benefits
all Coloradans by ensuring that everyone
has access to the great outdoors, good
schools and infrastructure to meet the
needs of our growing population," says
COGA President and Chief Executive
Officer Dan Haley. "And in Colorado,
where it is nearly impossible to raise
taxes, $1 billion for a single industry is
a significant revenue stream that should
be trumpeted."
The legislative attack on Colorado's
oil and gas industry is SB 181, which as
of March 26 already had passed the state
Senate and two House committees, and
was pending in the House Appropriations

Committee before being sent to a vote
on the House floor.
The bill, according to published reports,
not only would provide more local government control over oil and gas development and change the state's forcedpooling regulations, but also would switch
the focus of the Colorado Oil & Gas
Conservation Commission away from
fostering development and instead prioritize protecting public health, safety, welfare and the environment.
The potential impact of the bill may
have been demonstrated in late March,
published reports suggest, when the Adams
County Board of Commissioners voted
to establish a temporary moratorium on
new drilling while SB 181 was still working its way through the legislature.
"Until we have more clarity on
whether this bill will pass and what impact it can have locally, the board decided
to enact a temporary moratorium so we
can evaluate any new tools available to
address the health and safety of our residents," the reports quote Board Chairman
Steve O'Dorisio.
The Adams County moratorium, which
is intended to last at least six months, applies to sites and associated equipment
used for:
· Production, treatment and/or storage
of oil, gas and waste products;
· Individual well pads with one or
more wells producing liquid petroleum
and/or natural gas, including associated
equipment;
· Temporary storage and construction

126 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

staging for oil and gas; and
· Any other oil and gas operation
that may cause "significant degradation."
Value Driver
"This report demonstrates how a
strong oil and gas sector is a net positive,
not only because of the jobs and economic impacts it provides, but also because public revenue generated from
oil and natural gas activity play a vital
role in ensuring that everyone in the
state has access to good schools and
infrastructure to meet a growing population, and the great outdoors that makes
Colorado exceptional," reads Colorado
Oil & Gas Industry Economic and
Fiscal Contributions, 2017. "The industry continues to serve as a proactive
driver of investment in both technology
and community, despite operating in a
challenging political environment and
through a national industry downturn
from 2014 to mid-2016."
The report focuses on Colorado's oil
and gas upstream and midstream sectors,
and presents direct measures of oil and
gas industry activity, discusses broader
measures of economic impacts associated
with industry activity, and summarizes
public financial or "fiscal" cash flows associated with direct and indirect measures
of that economic activity.
The report estimates that in 2017, the
value of upstream and midstream oil and
gas activity amounted to $19.0 billion
and added $13.5 billion to Colorado's
state domestic product, with nearly two-
American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019

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