Governor Bill Ritter and the environmental left have done it.  Colorado’s oil and gas industry is a thing of the past.

Oil and gas executives ranked Colorado dead last among states where they are likely to invest their companies’ money,  according to the Fraser Institute in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  

The Denver Business Journal reported that that the Fraser Institute survey rated Colorado near the top in oil and gas investment in 2007 but now it is dead last among the states, and 81st overall among all international jurisdictions.  Mozambique is a more attractive investment than Colorado.

Oil and gas executives cited Ritter’s new regulations governing oil and gas drilling operations as the reason for the dramatic drop in Colorado’s investment allure.

The survey quoted an unnamed executive saying that in Colorado, “operational, legal, and air quality rules and regulations are being instituted at a dizzying pace. It is hard to keep up with as an operator. Most of the regulators instituting and enforcing these new rules have little or no experience in the industry and do not understand operations. Often they cannot answer questions or help, even with their own rules.”

While Colorado is dead last among states, several in our region were in the top ten including Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and Oklahoma.  

Oil and gas was a huge industry in Colorado .  According to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, oil and gas drilling in Colorado is a $23 billion industry.   To put the economic devastation brought on by Ritter and the enviro-left, check out the following facts:

• More than 70,000 Coloradans have jobs because of the oil and gas industry, with an average salary 32 percent higher than the state average.

• The responsible development of oil and gas resources in Colorado contributes in excess of $135 million to state coffers, nearly 90 percent of state severance taxes.

• Seven of the nation’s 100 largest natural gas fields and two of its largest 100 oil fields are located in Colorado.

• Colorado’s Piceance Basin holds the second-largest proven natural gas reserve in the country.

• The nation’s proven natural gas reserves have increased every year for a decade, jumping another nine percent last year.

• More than one-fourth of the United States’ coalbed methane production occurs in the Centennial State.

• Colorado ranks sixth among the states in natural gas production and eleventh in crude oil production.

• Thirty-six of Colorado’s 64 counties actively produce oil or natural gas.

• Colorado has an estimated one trillion barrels of oil in shale — an amount nearly equal to Earth’s entire proven oil reserves.

• Three of every four homes in Colorado are heated with natural gas, compared to the national average of just over half of homes.

• Three-fifths of Colorado’s natural gas is exported to meet demand in other states.

• With an estimated 21,850 billion cubic feet of dry natural gas, Colorado has 9.2 percent of the nation’s supply, and 6.1 percent of liquid reserves.

What type of leader kills a $23 billion industry?  Answer:  one that is beholden to the environmental left. 

I’ll repeat my prediction: no way in hell he wins Weld County in 2010.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Weld County, oil and gas, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.