More bad news for Governor Bill Ritter and democrats in the state legislature. Under their leadership, Colorado is losing its competitive edge according to a report from the Metro Denver Economic Corporation.

Yet one company is looking to expand in Colorado. You might think that our Governor would welcome this development.   You would be wrong.  In fact, just the opposite is true for Colorado’s $23 billion oil and gas industry.  

Anadarko, one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, is prepared to invest $100 million in the Wattenburg Field.  What’s the hold up?  According to an article in the Denver Post, it’s the permitting process and the length of time it takes to get a permit approval, which has nearly doubled under Governor Ritter’s administration.  

Since his election in 2006, Colorado’s oil and gas industry has been in Ritter’s line of site.  Burdensome regualtions already have resulted in layoffs around the state.  Senator Greg Brophy said his hometown of Wray, Colorado, an agricultural town on the Eastern Plains, has lost some 250 good-paying, oil and gas jobs.

This is not the time to be making it more difficult for companies to do business in Colorado.  Capital investment, like oil and gas, is fluid.  It will leave. Perhaps it’s time to remind everyone, including Governor Ritter, of the KFKA Players and their performance of Andrew Ripemoff’s “When your goose is cooked.”

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.

“Why does Ritter hate Weld County?” I haven’t see that sign yet but it is a reasonable question.  Among some elected officials the belief is that Governor Bill Ritter has declared war on Weld County.  We are starting to see the crippling effects of Ritter’s new oil and gas regulations.

Property taxes on oil and gas provide 40 percent of the revenue for Weld County’s annual budget.  Last week on my show, Weld County Assessor Chris Woodruff predicted that because of the new regulations, coupled with lower commodity prices, revenue from the oil and gas industry could be off by as much as one third in 2011 and 2012.  Oil and gas companies, along with their high paying jobs, say they are headed to states where the business climate is more friendly.

As bad as that sounds for Weld County, the Kersey school district will be in even worse shape. According to Chris, the district’s budget is 85 percent oil and gas property taxes.  Maybe the Platte Valley School District can install windmill to make up for the the looming budget gap.

Thanks to Governor Ritter and his environmental policies, Weld County is seeing high paying jobs go to other states and its tax base rapidly eroding.  Ritter won Weld County in 2006.  He won’t win it in 2010.