POINT: Chelsie Miera
President Biden’s inaugural address vowed to unify the country. Moments later he fired off executive orders unilaterally implementing a partisan political agenda. His order banning oil and gas leases on federal lands felt like a rolling blackout of opportunities, particularly damaging for West Slope residents.
In 2018, voters rejected a ballot measure to shut down Colorado’s oil and natural gas industry. Since then, we rewrote regulations through a years-long stakeholder process that brought Governor Polis’ administration, industry, environmental groups, citizens and regulators together to reduce emissions and risk within our industry. Though not perfect, Colorado created a new benchmark for oil and natural gas production positioning our state as a global leader. Sadly, Biden erased those efforts with a stroke of his pen.
Currently, Colorado ranks third in natural gas and sixth in oil production on public lands, with 3.7 million acres, the majority on the Western Slope, under lease from the federal government, providing $2.3 billion in annual economic output.
Judging by the administration’s aggressive response, a full-fledged drilling ban on federal lands is soon to follow. According to a recent study by the Wyoming Energy Authority, between 2021 and 2024 Colorado alone would lose:
• 5,172 jobs each year
• $546 million in tax revenue to the state
• $3.3 billion in GDP
• $1.6 billion in wages
Colorado’s unemployment rate is among the highest in the country, and we cannot afford to purge anymore high paying jobs. But this also impacts our kids. Colorado’s legislature has cut budgets due to the pandemic. Now, this oval office ban will further reduce critical K-12 funding, forcing additional cuts.
It’s important to note the destruction of our industry will exacerbate problems, not solve them. By outsourcing oil and natural gas to other states and countries, we will see a rise in local energy costs from home heating to gasoline prices. Colorado’s Energy Office states, “The average household in Colorado dedicates roughly 2 percent of the household’s income for energy expenditures. Many low-income households have expenditures that can exceed 10 percent.” Nearly 30% of Colorado households are energy-burdened and Biden’s policies will further pinch those on limited and fixed incomes.
Furthermore, while national environmental lobbying groups like the Sierra Club cheered the Biden ban, their own reports concede demand for natural gas will remain to continue to power and heat our homes, and oil products will continue to propel our airplanes, create our technology and support our pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. This policy only shifts supply to countries with inferior environmental safeguards.
Relinquishing our energy and jobs to foreign nations will harm our economy and hasten the impacts of climate change. This is particularly troubling when you consider that Colorado develops some of the cleanest energy molecules on the planet, and operators need federal and state approvals when applying for permits. Colorado operators are held to this incredibly high standard, regardless of location.
As a mother to young children, I have a strong desire for my community and planet to be better. Banning a resource that helps people live longer and reduces net carbon emissions is counter to accomplishing that goal. A federal lands ban sets back environmental objectives, harms the most vulnerable among us with increasing energy costs, and unnecessarily ushers thousands of women and men to the unemployment line.
In no way is that unifying, thoughtful, or forward thinking. The Biden energy agenda needs work. We should be producing our domestic resources more efficiently, cleanly, and safely than anywhere in the world whether that’s solar, wind, oil, or natural gas.
If the president got behind that type of endeavor, I know West Slope oil and natural gas companies would be eager to help.
Chelsie Miera is executive director of the West Slope Colorado Oil & Gas Association. She and her husband are both natives of western Colorado and are raising their two young children in their hometown.
COUNTERPOINT: Jim Lockhart
Biden’s energy policy recognizes reality, can bolster diversification of Colorado’s economy
As our world shifts to renewable energy and moves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we must ensure that Coloradans do not get left behind. President Biden’s pause on oil and gas leasing on public lands offers a chance to assess the true impacts of the industry on Colorado communities, our carbon budget, and local economies.
Right now in our state, oil companies can lease an acre of land from the federal government for as low as $2, less than the cost of a Big Mac. With costs so cheap, they are literally stockpiling our public lands. They own the rights to 2.5 million acres in Colorado alone. Of these, more than a third are sitting idle. This hinders our use of these lands for recreation, tourism and clean energy development– industries that produce mass revenue, jobs and returns on investment. It also negates any alarmist claims that a pause in new leasing will “shut down” Colorado’s oil and gas industry.
On lands where fossil fuels are being extracted, oil and gas corporations are often not held accountable for the full cost of clean-up due to outdated federal bonding rates. When companies go bankrupt and orphan their wells – which is happening with great frequency right now – the public pays the price, not only in cleanup costs, but also in contaminated drinking water, polluted air, and impaired wildlife habitat. This could cost the public hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars.
When these costs are added to the almost incalculable costs of climate change, including worsening wildfires, more extreme heat, and prolonged drought, and to the clean-air impacts of oil and gas development along the Front Range, it is clear that we as a state and nation are seriously underestimating the price we are paying for oil and gas.
On top of that, supply and demand are mismatched. With renewable energy growing faster and becoming cheaper, demand for oil is on a downward trend and this will only continue.
We in Colorado recognize that times are changing. In 2019 Colorado changed its oil and gas policy from “fostering” to regulating the industry in a manner that protects public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife resources. We also adopted a goal of making the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, 90% by 2050, that must be made to avoid dangerous climatic disruptions and their enormous social and financial impacts.
President Biden’s pause will help bring federal energy policy in line with Colorado’s goals.
A better path forward is possible, and President Biden’s executive actions will help us get there. Renewable energy generation on public lands, a better and cheaper alternative, represents billions of dollars in capital investments and provides thousands of construction and operations and maintenance jobs. Once online, the projects will provide steady revenue to the U.S. Treasury as well as state and local governments.
Renewable energy can also be part of a strategy to help communities, especially those currently dependent on fossil fuel production, diversify their economies.
President Biden was right when he said that last week’s day of climate executive actions was really “jobs day.”
We are on the tail end of a broken fossil fuel system that hides the true costs to our state and our communities and leaves us paying for the consequences. It is the time to invest in a clean energy economy — one that takes us away from a toxic dependence on fossil fuels, reinvests in communities, and begins a just transition to clean energy. The Biden administration’s bold energy proposals are a welcome, proactive shift when we need it most.
Jim Lockhart is the Conservation Chair of the Pikes Peak Group of the Colorado Chapter of Sierra Club.
