TOWN HALL: County, let 'em drill for oil and gas (poll)
We could use the taxes and prosperity
The Gazette’s editorial board has tremendous respect for El Paso County commissioners, and we trust they won’t take anything more than reasonable and necessary measures to regulate oil and gas production that our country and local economy need.
Commissioners will consider proposals by the county planning staff that some argue would comprise extreme obstructions to energy production, in a state that already has what some call the strictest oil and gas regulations in the country. Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, a watchdog for consumers and defender of free markets, sent a detailed, nine-page warning to county officials that explains how the original oil and gas regulations proposed by county staffers would be illegal if enacted.
They would be illegal because our water, wildlife and other environmental elements are already protected by state law. The Colorado Supreme Court has made perfectly clear the fact that state oil and gas regulations pre-empt local oil and gas regulations. By attempting to duplicate, complicate or one-up state regulations, county officials will achieve nothing more than creating expensive lawsuits, at the expense of taxpayers, that they cannot win.
As a result of the attorney general’s letter, proposals were revised but still go too far and do not eliminate concerns expressed by Suthers pertaining to setbacks, and open-pit and water-quality rules.
“The county should reject the regulations of concern as being in operational conflict with” state regulations, wrote Assistant Attorney General Jake Matter.
More important than legal considerations are the economic consequences of putting government in the path of jobs and revenues new energy production will create.
We haven’t the luxury of extreme environmentalism, which isn’t needed in a state that is already known for sophisticated and responsible regulation of oil and gas. Unemployment is at 9 percent in El Paso County. Schools, fire districts and other local governments are starved for tax revenues. The only way up and out is economic growth, and throughout our country’s history, oil and gas production has resulted in phenomenal prosperity.
Do you support oil and gas drilling in El Paso County? Vote in poll to the right. Must vote to see results.
Our country needs oil and gas. Windmills and sun panels are all the rage, but they have a long way to go before they can power our cars, buses and trains while heating and cooling our offices and homes. We’re heavily dependent upon foreign oil because environmentalists and local politicians, on nearly every square mile of American soil, have said “not in our backyard” for far too long.
Oil and gas production is taxed at 87.5 percent of valuation, making it a cash cow for local governments and the state. It generated $303 million in sales and use taxes for Colorado in 2010 alone, and $360 million in property taxes.
Do not get sidetracked, duped or confused by the agendas of radical environmentalists with overblown safety concerns. Our local economy needs oil and gas production, and our state leads the nation when it comes to protecting water, soil, wildlife and the environment at-large from the potential pitfalls of oil and gas prosperity.
That's our view. What's yours? Please initiate or join in a Facebook discussion below, and vote in poll to the upper right.
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