DENVER – At times, the debate about Colorado’s natural resources can fall on either side of party lines, but there is a common ground, according to a new poll released this week by the Western Values Project.
It says almost 70 percent of voters in Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota and Utah support a rule that would require oil companies to reduce the amount of natural gas they release or burn off into the air as they extract it from public lands.
Ross Lane, executive director of WVP, says the survey indicates voters find a commonality when it comes to wasting resources.
“There’s overwhelming support for a strong rule from the Bureau of Land Management to address the problem of venting and flaring,” Lane says. “It’s essentially to say, ‘Look, this is American energy and we need to use it, not just watch it go, literally, up in flames.’”
Nationwide, according to WVP, oil companies wasted enough taxpayer-owned energy on public lands to meet the needs of a city the size of Los Angeles or Chicago for an entire year. Colorado is the first state to adopt air-pollution rules that require oil and gas companies to control emissions of methane and other smog-forming volatile organic compounds.
The poll found 80 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans supported a rule preventing the waste of natural gas as it is extracted. Amy Levin is partner with the Benenson Strategy Group, which conducted the survey, and says their results demonstrate energy waste is one thing people can agree on.
“You know, this isn’t just a traditional environmental issue. This isn’t just a traditional cut-and-dried energy issue,” Levin says.
Lane says venting and flaring also means oil and gas that burns or is released into the environment is not sold.
“But in the vast majority of this gas that is either vented or flared, they’re not paying royalties on that. So taxpayers aren’t seeing a single penny from that gas,” he says.
Venting and flaring on public lands could cost taxpayers $800 million in lost revenue over the next decade.
