morgan bazilian
Greg Clough
Simon Lomax
In the words of Mark Twain, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. One need only look at the debate over energy policy in the Colorado State Legislature for proof of that.
For those unfamiliar with the issue, Colorado is a national and global leader in many areas of energy and climate policy, particularly in regulating emissions from oil and natural gas production.
Ten years ago, the United States became the first state to directly regulate methane emissions from oil and natural gas facilities. This was a big problem because methane traps far more heat per pound than carbon dioxide, a well-known greenhouse gas.
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The lessons learned here in Colorado are being followed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These same lessons are also influencing international efforts to monitor and measure methane emissions much more accurately using ground-based sensors, aircraft and drone flights, satellite surveys, and complex data science solutions. Masu.
The risks to climate change are enormous. Eliminating methane emissions from the global oil and gas supply chain would mean converting every car and truck in the world to be able to run on electricity from wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal and other zero-carbon sources. It is said that it is almost the same. to the Energy Emissions Modeling and Data Laboratory.
But unlike the complete electrification of the world’s transportation sector, which is likely to take decades, cutting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector to near zero may be possible within a few years. And now Colorado is the world’s leading source of innovative solutions to regulate and reduce methane emissions.
But for the past two years in a row, Colorado’s leadership on methane and its ability to accelerate global reductions of this powerful greenhouse gas has been under threat.
In 2023, for example, environmental groups called for a major overhaul of the state’s air quality regulation system. This review came in the form of a legislative proposal, House Bill 23-1294.
The 2023 bill would have caused a significant increase in daily workload and derailed the state’s air permitting system, costing more and creating 110 to 120 more jobs, according to a nonpartisan legislative staff analysis. The addition of new air quality regulators will be required. Over $11 million annually.
The Polis administration sounded the alarm and worked with lawmakers to largely rescind the proposal. However, it was only a temporary reprieve.
The same pressure resurfaced in a different form during the 2024 Congress.
It started with Senate Bill 24-159, a bill that would eliminate all oil and gas permits in Colorado by 2030. The high-profile bill stalled for weeks until Democrats joined with Republicans to defeat it during its first committee hearing.
But focus quickly shifted to three proposals, House Bill 24-1330 and Senate Bills 24-165 and 24-166, which again called for a major overhaul of air quality permits.
When considered together, the three bills were found to result in larger permit suspensions.
Polis administration officials submitted estimates to Congress showing an increase in workload equivalent to hiring 750 new employees. The state budget totals more than $100 million a year, including $25 million in legal fees alone.
Gov. Jared Polis and legislative leaders then held talks with environmental groups and energy industry representatives to explore ways to move forward, and by late April, negotiations had reached a constructive compromise. created.
The parties agreed to waive for three years legislative proposals and ballot measures that could disrupt the state’s regulatory framework.
Instead, the two parties will codify the Polis administration’s program to reduce smog-forming emissions and raise $138 million a year for public transportation and land conservation projects. Agreed to support two bills that would create new fees for production.
Within days of the breach announcement, state air quality regulators completed new protocols for the use of advanced measurement technology to track and reduce the emissions intensity of oil and gas produced in Colorado. .
The Environmental Defense Fund praised the international importance of the “first of its kind” protocol.
“Global gas markets are demanding lower methane intensity from natural gas, and gas importers and exporters are grappling with challenges (measurement, reporting and verification) to substantiate lower methane intensity claims. , Colorado will be in the spotlight again,” Nini Gu said. , EDF’s Western US regulatory and legislative director wrote in response to the news:
It took more than a decade of painstaking efforts for Colorado to become a world leader on the critical issue of reducing methane emissions. It’s a role worth protecting.
But perhaps even more important is the ability of Colorado’s policymakers and stakeholders to overcome differences and reach political consensus. It is a model that is desperately needed in the current polarized political environment.
Morgan Bazilian is director of the Paine Public Policy Institute at the Colorado School of Mines and former chief energy expert at the World Bank. Greg Clough is the institute’s deputy director. Simon Lomax is Policy and Outreach Advisor at the Institute.
