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The environmental think tank Carbon Tracker found that 39 percent of Colorado oil and gas companies haven't completed financial assurance plans to guarantee they'll clean up after themselves—and some drillers are going out of business before they can complete the process.
Carbon Tracker's report focuses on the state's new bonding rules, which were required under a voter-approved overhaul of oil and gas regulations in 2019. The report warns that loopholes in Colorado's regulations could leave the state with less money in financial guarantees than it had before the new rules.
The Colorado Sun highlights two low-volume producers from the report: WME Yates submitted a bonding plan but went out of business before it was approved, leaving 212 wells behind for taxpayers to clean up. Omimex Petroleum had its financial plan approved, but went out of business before it posted any bonds, leaving behind 339 wells.
Large producers are taking advantage of a category in Colorado's rules that lets them declare wells to be "out-of-service," removing them from bonding requirements in exchange for a promise that the wells will be plugged within six years.
Chevron subsidiary Noble Energy categorized 1,700 of its Colorado wells as "out-of-service," letting the company reduce its bonding obligation from $21 million to just $6 million.
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The less charitable way to read this bill is it’s just part of Ken Ivory’s quixotic quest to get rid of national public lands in Utah, which has always been — No. 1, pointless and No. 2, deeply unpopular.”
