Beyond the Boom

The Rocky Mountain News did a series on the energy boom rocking parts of Colorado and how communities are enjoying, coping, and mitigating the impacts (or at least trying to). The series offers a a number of perspectives and the challenges involved in local-state-federal policy making and planning.

The day 1 article in the series, entitled "The billion dollar question: What if?", is particularly interesting because two state legislators have taken seemingly opposite positions from the ones you would think they would take given their respective political ties. Their perspective is likely influenced by their location place in the state and the energy boom.

Representative Josh Penry, a Mesa County Republican, is witnessing the energy boom first hand and is a big supporter of creating a permanent trust fund from oil and gas severance taxes - similar to what Wyoming did a decade ago. Chris Romer, a Democratic Senator from the Denver Metro area, favors the more measured approach of analyzing how taxes are currently collected and allocated before the state tries to set up a permanent fund.

Who's the conservative in this debate?

Read the entire series

Garfield County sees explosive growth

Garfield County received front page space in the Sunday Denver Post due to the energy boom driving the county's economy.

Jason Blevins story captures the essence of life in Garfield County since the boom began five years ago. As New Castle Mayor Frank Breslin says, “It's just all happening so fast out here. I just dart around like a bumblebee.”

The economic growth has been a boon to a county mired in a slump cause by the overnight departure of Exxon (Black Sunday) in 1982 and the county now has more jobs than it has workers. The challenge for the public sector is to try tokeep up and pay for the infrastructure to support the increases in traffic, homes, and wastewater while competing with the gas companies for workers.

Blevins quotes Christy Hamrick, the finance director for Garfield County's 4,500-student school district, “We pay drivers $14 an hour, and they pay $22 an hour. We have to compete with that, and we've seen lots of turnover. ”

EnCana wins approval to house nearly 750 workers at well pads in GarCo

EnCana USA has won Garfield County approval to operate up to 31 temporary facilities housing nearly 750 natural gas development workers north of Parachute.

Each of the facilities, known informally as man camps, is allowed to hold up to 24 employees and contractors. None would be operated more than one year under the county permits.

Energy companies have used temporary housing facilities under the permission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, but the county learned it had authority to regulate them and instituted its permitting process last November.

Parachute Mayor Roy McClung wrote to the county that while the onsite housing will help, the town still will see traffic impacts related to EnCana's drilling plans and is worried about overloaded intersections and the lack of funding to improve them.

He suggested in the letter that the county needs to be collecting impact fees from such developments to meet highway improvement needs.

Read Dennis Webb's full article . . .

Changes to state's oil and gas commission moves closer to reality

The Colorado Senate endorsed Gov. Bill Ritter's plan to overhaul the state's oil and gas regulatory process.

The Senate approved House Bill 1341, which will expand and change the makeup of the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to include environmental, wildlife, public health and landowner representatives.

The bill will reduce from five to three the number of industry voices while expanding the commission to nine members.

The seven-member panel is dominated by oil and gas
representatives, which critics say amounts to the industry regulating
itself.

Read the full article . . .

TOD can save the planet

Transit oriented development is gaining traction around the U.S. (it's already popular in many other countries) because it can address many community issues -- provide affordable housing, increase transit service, prevent loss of open space, create public places -- at the same time.

And now, in case you needed another reason to support TOD, it can also save the planet. As San Mateo County Supervisior Adrienne Tissier writes,

The solutions to global warming are found in modern urban planning and zoning and three little words: Transit Oriented Development. Build well-designed, affordable housing within walking distance of efficient mass transit, and the air-fouling traffic jams will unclog themselves. Better yet, build well-designed, affordable housing within walking distance of jobs, schools and retail, and car use will plummet.

It is nice to know that something good for a community has a global benefit as well.

Green buildings get preference in Saanich

Saanich, BC wants residential builders to build "green" by cutting "red" tape. It is giving priority to applications for housing projects using energy-efficient components and provide those builders rebates of up to 30 per cent on building-permit fees.

Read the full article . . .

Oil-shale leases OK'd Five 160-acre locations on Western Slope

The oil trapped in the oil shale of Western Colorado maybe vast, but it is unclear whether it makes economic sense to get it. Canadian Peter Tertzakian thinks supplying the world's 1,000 barrel a second oil addiction will be far from easy. But that doesn't mean businesses aren't hedging their bets.

Earlier this week, the Bush administration authorized oil-shale leases for five sites on public land in western Colorado. As Mike Soraghan writes, they are the first leases since the shale bust of the 1980s wrenched the region's economy.

The approval was for relatively small-scale "research and development" leases, but it was the government's biggest endorsement yet of oil shale, a vast petroleum resource with a checkered past.

The 10-year research and development leases clear the way for Shell, Chevron Corp. and EGL Resources to use 160-acre sites of public land between Rangely and Meeker in Rio Blanco County.

The leases can be converted later into larger, commercial leases.

Shell has been operating on private land in the area, but shale deposits owned by the federal government are thicker and richer with organic material.

All three of the companies are experimenting with heating the shale underground to melt organic material into oil, then pumping it out of the ground.

Read the full article by Mike Soraghan . . .

Carbondale aims to be renewable energy Mecca

While the western portion of Garfield County is booming with oil and gas development, and the associated environmental impacts, the eastern end of the county is looking in a different direction for energy production.

Carbondale Question 2F on the Nov. 7 ballot will ask voters to allow the town of Carbondale to issue up to $1.8 million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) to construct and operate two large-scale solar systems.

The proposed systems would provide about 250 kilowatts (KW) of power. One of the systems would be the largest solar system in western Colorado.

Voting "yes" on 2F will increase the town's debt, but will not raise local taxes. Revenue from the solar systems will pay off the bonds over the next 20 years. And, under a provision of the 2005 Energy Incentives Tax Act, the interest on the CREBs will be paid by the U.S. Government.

Carbondale trustees unanimously decided to pursue the CREBs after the town's advisory environmental board produced the Carbondale Energy Plan earlier this year. The plan outlines specific ways Carbondale can reduce its contribution to global warming.

The CREBs will fund two separate solar projects, one for 50 kilowatts (KW) and one for 200 KW. The 50 KW system will be located at the Carbondale Elementary School (the town is in negotiations with the school district to purchase the property) or the new recreation center and the larger system will be located either at Colorado Rocky Mountain School or at the town's Roaring Fork water plant.

Read full article by Gina Guarascio . . .

Meanwhile Boulder considers a Carbon Tax . . .

Trees for the urban environment and community equity

Trees in an arid environment such as Denver cannot be taken for granted. But it is not only rain fall that determines the type and number of trees - commuity income plays a factor as well.

A 2003 Denver park study showed lower-income neighborhoods have less than 5 percent canopy cover while higher-income neighborhoods had more than 15 percent cover.

"It's pretty remarkable when you see the disparity," said Patrick Hayes, director of the Park People, which plants more than 1,000 trees a year in poorer neighborhoods.

Adding trees to a semi-arid steppe ecosystem isn't natural, but neither are concrete, asphalt or Kentucky bluegrass, said Dan Binkley, a professor in Colorado State University's department of forestry, rangeland and watershed stewardship.

"The trees will use water," he said. "It's similar to the amount of water on lawns. But there is more of a cooling effect and more noise abatement."

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper wants to raise the metro area's shade coverage to 18 percent in 20 years by planting 1 million trees over the next 20 years.

That comes to 137 trees being planted every day - 50,000 new trees every year.

"It's a question, like anything, of who, where and when," Hickenlooper said about the proposal announced in July as part of his Greenprint Denver plan.

Read the full article in the Denver Post . . .

Oil shale looms over region

If the economy of the the Western Slope weren't already hot enough, the promise (or spector depending on your perspective) looms over discussions about what the future might hold for the area.

Since the Colorado State Demographer already forecasts significant population and job growth for Eagle, Pitkin, and Garfield Counties over the next 20-30 years (and that's "without considering oil shale" goes the common rejoinder), what happens with oil shale research and development hoovers over the region's collective imagination.

The region's oil shale deposits hold enough potential "oil" (three times the reserves of Saudi Arabia) to attract a lot of national attention. Unfortunately, as an article in the San Francisco Chronicle reports, "the energy value of the oil produced would be about 3.5 times greater than the energy in the electricity used to produce it."

Even if the technology evolves enough to extract oil from oil shale, we've centainly entered a would of diminishing energy returns.

Meeting of the mayoral minds

Mayors from Aspen to Grand Junction joined together on the morning of August 3rd to take a flyby airplane ride of the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valley and discuss regional issues. The flights were provide by the nonprofit Eco-Flight and the day was organized by Healthy Mountain Communities and Silt Mayor Dave Moore.

Mayors met at Garfield County Airport in the morning to get an aerial view of the valley's oil and gas wells, oil shale projects, gravel pits along the Colorado River and the Interstate 70 corridor. Afterwards, the group met at Silt Town Hall for an informal discussion about various issues.

"It was very beneficial," said Rifle Mayor Keith Lambert. "We found a lot of commonality in the issues that are before us. I'm very proud to be working with this group of people. There's a strong possibility of productive outcomes to be had from this group."

The mayors will be meeting in Aspen during September to continue discussing issues facing the region.

Read the full article in the Post Independent . . .

Carbondale uses energy franchise fees to finance energy plan

Carbondale town trustees unanimously agreed last month to move ahead with the town of Carbondale Energy and Climate Protection Plan (energy plan) by allocating $140,000 in the 2007 budget to fund the initiative.

The money comes from franchise fees paid by Xcel, Holy Cross and KN Energy to operate in town. The fees vary every year but usually come out to about $150,000.

The Carbondale Environmental Board came up with the energy plan and originally presented it to the trustees in May. It is a comprehensive document that includes facts and figures on the town’s consumption of energy and things that can be done to minimize Carbondale’s effect on global climate change.

In May, the trustees directed town staff to come up with a strategy to implement the energy plan. Carbondale Town Manager Tom Baker agreed with the recommendation from the Environmental Board that a staff person must be committed to implementing the plan and money allocated for the plan to be successful.

Baker recommended that the town contract with the non profit Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) to implement the plan instead of hiring another town employee.

The town has also applied for more that $1.5 million from the federal government in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREB). The interest on the bonds would be paid by the government as part of the 2005 federal energy bill.

The town would need to put the question to the voters if they decide to pursue the bonds, and they have taken the necessary steps with the Garfield County Clerk to ensure that the question could be on the ballot this November.

Read the full article in the Valley Journal . . .

The Biofuel Illusion

Julia Olmstead writes an interesting peice on the peirls of the new found love affair with "biofuels" and its potential to address global warming. She makes a number of points about the focus on producing more biofuels rather than encouraging more energy efficiency, including:

• The United States annually consumes more fossil and nuclear energy than all the energy produced in a year by the country's plant life, including forests and that used for food and fiber, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Energy and David Pimentel, a Cornell University researcher.

• To produce enough corn-based ethanol to meet current U.S. demand for automotive gasoline, we would need to nearly double the amount of land used for harvested crops, plant all of it in corn, year after year, and not eat any of it. Even a greener fuel source like the switchgrass President Bush mentioned, which requires fewer petroleum-based inputs than corn and reduces topsoil losses by growing back each year, could provide only a small fraction of the energy we demand.

• Improving fuel efficiency in cars by just 1 mile per gallon - a gain possible with proper tire inflation - would cut fuel consumption equal to the total amount of ethanol federally mandated for production in 2012.

George Monbiot has made similar points in his columns about the disasterous affects of increasing biofuel production on the world stage.

The focus on producing more energy overlooks the current technologies and designs we could implement today to reduce energy demand (such as with more efficient appliances, heating and cooling systems, cars, land use patterns). Doing more with less energy input has never been more possible or more imperative.

You can read her full essay in the Denver Post and the Prairie Writers Circle.

Garco study finds housing values only temporarily reduced from gas drilling

Ford Frick of BBC Research in Denver recently presented the results of a land values study commissioned by Garfield County. The study looked at the factors that drive land values and the the impacts of “rural industrialization” including gas well drilling and gravel pit operations in the county.

Frick and his team analyzed 7,600 property transactions from 1987 to 2004 as well as drilling data. There are 5,010 well drilling permits currently held in the county and 2,675 operating gas wells.

The gas industry ultimatley contributes to housing appreciation. The value lost during initial drilling activity is more than recaptured a few years later by the increasing demand for housing so don't sell your property at the first site of a drilling rig!

Read the full article in the Post Independent . . .

The reality of global warming and some innovative local responses

TIME Magazine made the reality of global warming the cover story of their April 3rd issue and The Aspen Skiing Company and Environmental Foundation Director Auden Schendler received kudos for their efforts in the "Climate Crusaders" section.

The whole Roaring Fork Valley probably deserved some ink given the work of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency, Solar Energy International, Rocky Mountain Institute, Rising Sun, Aspen Global Change Institute, as well as all the local governments in the region that have purchased wind power. Add Pitkin County's Renewable Energy Impact Program, Aspen's Canary Initiative, and Carbondale's Green Rec Center and TIME could put the whole valley on their next cover with the caption "Locals get serious about energy in a warming world."

Gas Industry Fuels County Coffers

For likely the first time ever, tax revenues from Garfield County's booming natural gas industry made up the bulk of the county's assessed value -- more than monster second-homes, hotels, resorts, and shopping areas combined.Natural gas values made up 55 percent of the county's assessed value in 2005, up from 45 percent the previous year. The increase has brought $16 million more in revenues to county coffers and taxing districts, from $70.7 million in 2004 to $86.7 million last year, a 23 percent increase. Garfield County own revenues increased $7.1 million to $24.2 million.

Residential properties made up just 19 percent of the county's assessed value last year, down from 25 percent in 2004. Commercial properties contributed less, too, from 16 percent in 2004 to 14 percent in 2005.

Read the full article in the Mtn. Business Journal

Denver goes solar

The city of Denver is seeking out companies to build a new municipally-owned solar power plant that would generate enough electricity to provide power to more than 1,000 homes.

The plant would be built at an industrial portion of the new urbanist Stapleton development. The plant will be one of the first municipally-owned power plants in an urban area in the nation. Revenue from selling energy to Xcel Energy will provide more than enough money to pay for construction and maintenance of the plant.Read the full article

Garfield County leads in drilling permits

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission approved 4,363 drilling permits in 2005 - an all-time high for the state and a 50 percent increase from the previous year.

There were 28,944 active wells in Colorado at the end of 2005. That number is expected to increase to 31,000 wells producing by the end of 2006.

The biggest surge in drilling permits came out of Garfield County, home to the lucrative Piceance Basin in western Colorado.

In 2005, the commission approved 1,508 permits to drill in Garfield County, or about 34 percent of all permits issued in Colorado. The number of permits for 2005 reflects a doubling in activity from the previous year.

Read the full article . . .

Oil and gas planning from the ground up

Frustrated with current state oil and gas regulations and tired of the lack of planning at either the state or county level, a number of citizens directly impacted by the oil and gas boom in Garfield County have taken a different approach - they have negotiated directly with the industry. Their efforts over the last several months are on the cutting edge of ways to plan for natural-gas development in the Intermountain West

The Rifle/Silt/New Castle Community Development Project began earlier this year when residents in and around these communities realized that drilling in their neighborhoods was inevitable given the gas reserves in the county, current state regulations, and the nation's insatiable demand for natural gas.

Organized under the auspices of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, community members began talking with Antero Resources, which has purchased leases in the area, to encourage them to work with neighborhoods and communities in crafting their drilling plans, not just surface and mineral owners.

The resulting plan recommends clustering drilling on pads spaced from 640 to 160 acres apart. Clustering would minimize construction of roads, pipelines and other accouterments of drilling and thereby lessen impacts. The plan would also include best management practices for natural-gas drilling such as placing pipelines alongside or in existing roads, piping water to wells rather than trucking it in, and installing equipment to reduce toxic emissions, reduce noise and light. Drilling rigs would also be at least 500 feet from the nearest homes.

Antero Resources has adopted this collaboratively created plan, and citizens are beginning talks with other gas operators as well as local governments.

You can view a PDF version of the document, which is still a working draft, at www.hmccolorado.org/GVCAPLAN-11-2005.pdf