By Ed Sealover for the Denver Business Journal
A collection of 41 Colorado businesses and business groups are asking Gov. Jared Polis and the state’s top oil and gas regulators to reconsider requiring oil and gas wells be at least 2,000 feet from homes.
The letter, sent Monday, argued the 2,000-foot well setback being considered by the commissioners on the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — along with a possible change to how setbacks are measured — would threaten the oil and gas industry in the state and resemble the 2,500-foot setbacks that Colorado voters rejected at the ballot box in 2018.
“As we all know, Coloradans saw that for what it was, an industry ban, and voters defeated that measure by a double-digit margin,” the letter said, referring to Proposition 112.
Many leaders of the Denver metro area and state’s largest chambers of commerce and economic development groups signed the letter, including Kelly Brough of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Loren Furman of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, and J.J. Ament of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.