Colorado pauses rulemaking to reduce ‘cumulative impacts’ from oil, gas [Video]

DENVER — By the end of April, Colorado’s top regulatory agency for the oil and gas industry was expected to finish up a yearslong process meant to define how the state can consider “cumulative impacts” when approving new oil and gas development. But that process is paused for now.

Colorado lawmakers first tasked the Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) with making rules to evaluate and address cumulative impacts in 2019 – as part of the agency’s broad mission change from fostering the oil and gas industry to regulating it.

The intention is to better protect Coloradans’ health and the environment by looking at the bigger picture of existing pollution before allowing more oil and gas operations. But the complexity of creating new rules around cumulative impacts, while still enabling the oil and gas industry to operate, has led the commission to “kick the can down the road,” said Andrew Forkes-Gudmundson, a lawyer with …