Ritter, oil biz try to work it out - Denver Business Journal:

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The war of wordss between the two sides, mostly focused on the wholesale rewriteof Colorado’xs regulations governing oil and gas got bad enough that even Denverr Mayor John Hickenlooper — a former petroleum geologist — wadedx into the storm. Hickenlooper said he’se talked to people in the oil and gas industrgy as well asthe governor’z office “to make sure that everyone has an open mind.” “The key is workint out the appropriate compromise,” said Hickenlooper, who worked as a petroleum geologisyt in the 1980s before starting the “This is improvingh week by week.
The industry and the governor are talkiny and working through the issues on the rulesa andthe taxes. Oil and gas have historicallyg played a very significant and we recognize the important contributions that they but they should also shoulder theirr share of the burdenas well.” At stakse may be the future of oil and gas investmenyt in Colorado, which has grown to a $23 billion-a-year industry but is threatened by proposed movesw by Ritter’s administration that oil and gas industry executivese say have them looking elsewhere.
Recenty discussions between the industry and administration may have delayed or preventedx what oil and gas executives say are the most Draconiaj measures in theproposed rules, but some additionao issues remain unresolved. • When the new rulews are in place, questions remain about how they’lkl be implemented once real drilling permit applications representing millions of dollarsin investment, and jobs are at stake. • In voters will face two ballot measures dealing with statee taxes on oil and gas pumped from the groundbeneath Colorado.
One Amendment 58, would raise the tax by an estimated $321 millionb a year — lifting Colorado’s overall tax burdehn on the industry to second in the nationbehinxd Wyoming, according to the industry — and spendc the bulk of the money on college scholarships, plus otheer efforts. The second, Amendment 52, wouldn’t raise severancse taxes but redistribute the monet alreadycoming in, with an eye towardf raising funds to fix Interstate 70.
• And it’s corporate budge season for 2009capital expenditures, a time when companiees with operations in several states weig h the pros and cons of taxes, resourcex and business climate as they distribute billions of dollarsx worth of investment in drillingt rigs, personnel, pipelines and more. With so much in play and at “uncertainty” is the industrg watchword. “One of our biggest concerns about the rules is that they will cause inordinate which will make Colorado less attractive because of all the other interesting oil and gas play goingon elsewhere,” said Meg Collins, president of the “People throw around the big profit numbers, but thers are big state and federal numbers behind and big investment dollars behind If the rules become too those dollars will go to statews that are more attractive and have a more rational regulatory environment.
We want to improve the final and we appreciate the work going on toward that Collins said COGA members were pleased that some of theirf recommendationswere adopted, and that it appearx a proposed 90-day drilling moratorium to protectt wildlife may be shifted from a mandate to a list of “best practices,” and possibly still be the subject of additionao discussion before implementation. “The relationship has much improved,” Ritter agreed. “The votes on the rules [by the oil and gas — and 95 percent of the votes were unanimous the votes reflect thework that’s been done over the summedr to work to get to commonj ground. We’ve worked very hard.
” Ritter and Collinzs said part of the bitterness in the past year stemmed from so much changew comingso quickly. “It’s a law of contrasts,” Rittet said. “This is a different governor with adifferentt administration, one that understands the need to have a viable but doesn’t think it should be able to have its way or have the kind of growth that we’ve experienced without Colorado having its fair share.
” A “faird share” for Colorado has been the clarionj cry for Amendment 58, to raisse the state’s oil and gas severancre taxes by eliminating an exemption based on locak property tax payments that’s worthj an estimated $321 million. Ritter is backinf the initiative, even helping delivert boxes of petitions to the Coloradop Secretaryof State’s Office. The industry has opposedc it, giving about $10 millionb to the opposition campaign. Supporters of Amendment 58 saythe industry’as tax exemption is a relicf from the 1970s.
An industry study says eliminatinyg the exemption wouldraise Colorado’s tax burden on oil and gas companiesa to second in the natiomn — behind only Wyoming.