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Air Quality Commission: More Time Needed To Craft Oil & Gas Rules

Grace Hood

Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission will take more time to weigh new rules for oil and gas drillers.

During a meeting Thursday, the Commission decided to postpone a rulemaking hearing until February. Originally the group had planned for talks in November.

“The division actually views the extension of the stakeholder process as a positive development--that it reflects the progress that’s been made to date,” said Christopher Dann, a communications liaison for the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division. “We believe that all parties on all sides of this will benefit from the extension so that’s why we’re pursuing it.” 

"We believe that all parties on all sides of this will benefit from the extension..."

The list of stakeholders participating in the process is long—including industry representatives, environmentalists and Colorado residents who are increasingly displeased with oil and gas activity close to neighborhood boundaries. Several communities including Fort Collins, Lafayette and Loveland will vote on ballot measures this fall seeking to limit the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Meantime, the Denver Post writes that oil and gas emissions are the main source of volatile organic compounds in Colorado. Those same emissions are the third-largest source of nitrogen oxides in the same.

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