GUEST COLUMN: Oil and gas industry development has major potential for our area

Like the rest of the country, our community has been hit particularly hard during this recession. The new preliminary numbers are in from Bureau of Labor Statistics for El Paso County, and unemployment is at 8.7 percent. And that’s not including those in the community who have stopped looking for employment, or those that are simply underemployed — taking jobs well beneath their expertise level.

Meanwhile, a contracting economy has left our schools and local governments crunched for cash — that means less money for police and firefighters, and teachers and students, too.

As a businessman, I’ve see the hardships in our community firsthand. Bottom-line: we need all the jobs and economic growth we can find.

That’s why it strikes me as odd — and very disappointing — that a normally conservative community like our own has allowed itself to get tugged into the camp of being adversarial to oil and gas development. Anti-drilling sentiments should find traction in places like Boulder in Telluride, but not here.

Still, there are a lot of anti-drilling rumblings coming from our local governments. The city put in place a moratorium on drilling, and county planners have asked the county commission to adopt a new 14-step bureaucratic planning process that is so arcane that environmental groups could tie up potential energy production here indefinitely.

It’s time for leaders at the top of the organizational chart to put a stop to these irresponsible actions, and knowing them as I do, I believe they will.

What makes these local restrictions most dubious: thanks to former Governor Bill Ritter, Colorado already has the most onerous oil and gas restrictions in place at the state level. These restrictions were so onerous that they played a big role in him getting run out of office — they killed thousands of jobs and reduced energy production at a time we need more of both.

Environmentalists and oil and gas companies don’t agree on much, but they do agree that the existing oil and gas rules in here in the Centennial State are among the most restrictive in the U.S.A.

No wonder the office of Attorney General John Suthers sent a warning shot to our local officials last week, saying that the redundant restrictions were illegal. Good for John Suthers.

And I hope and trust our reliable county commission will follow the Attorney General’s lead. As it always is with a political issue, misinformation abounds. Some of it comes honestly because energy development is new here, but much of it comes from people who make a living fighting domestic energy production wherever they can. I hope the commissioners will call it straight in the face of these scare tactics: oil and gas production has occurred safely and responsibly in this state for more than 100 years. And with thousands of pages of state-level regulations, local residents can be sure that production in our community balances public health and environmental values.

A robust oil and gas industry has the potential to dramatically improve our economic outlook. In North Dakota for instance, where the local officials have embraced domestic production, their unemployment rate is 3.3 percent.

And if and when energy development scales up here, it will be a funding boon to school, road and public safety programs. Every drop of energy produced here will be taxed like property is taxed, only at a much higher level. Oil and gas production is taxed 87.5 percent of valuation, whereas commercial property is taxed at about 20 percent and residential property is at near 8 percent. All of which is a complicated way of saying cities, counties and our schools will benefit in a significant financial way from oil and gas’ presence.

Whether it’s improving the local economy, increasing funding for our schools, or helping reduce our dependence on foreign energy, El Paso County has a real opportunity when it comes to oil and gas development. I’m glad we’ve got sensible leaders who will see the opportunity for what it is, and allow facts to drive their decisions for the good of us all.

Gregory A “Buddy” Gilmore is owner and Chief Executive Officer of Shape Technologies LLC, a systems engineering and analysis company headquartered in Colorado Springs. Buddy is a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, and a 25-year resident of Colorado Springs.