Colorado Petroleum Council welcomes mill levy increase to ensure necessary funding for COGCC
DENVER, February 12, 2018 – The Colorado Petroleum Council (CPC) issued the following statement in support of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s (COGCC) mill levy increase to secure much needed funding for the Commission to ensure adequate staffing and timely review and approval of applications for safe and responsible energy development in Colorado.
“Ensuring necessary funding for the COGGC budget is an important step forward to ensure consumers can continue benefitting from Colorado’s growing energy sector,” said CPC Executive Director Tracee Bentley. “The COGCC faces a mounting workload and increasing backlog. Even standard, uncontested spacing and pooling applications face month-to-month continuations. These delays impair the ability of operators to manage their drilling programs and plan investments.
“We applaud today’s decision to ensure that regulators have the resources needed to complete proper permitting reviews and to fulfill their responsibilities to provide proper oversight of energy projects across the state.”
Every one-tenth increase in the mill levy generates approximately one million dollars of revenue for Colorado. The mill levy increase approved today is projected to increase the ending fund balance to almost six million dollars by fiscal year 2018-19. Ensuring appropriate staffing can help to safeguard effective regulation to the benefit of the industry, taxpayers and consumers.
“The natural gas and oil industry supports more than 232,900 jobs, provides nearly $23.1 billion in wages and contributes nearly $31.4 billion to the state’s economy. We look forward to continuing to work with the COGCC and all stakeholders in support of safe and responsible development of Colorado’s oil and natural gas resources.”
The Colorado Petroleum Council is a division of API, which represents all segments of America’s oil and natural gas industry. Its more than 625 members produce, process, and distribute most of the nation’s energy. The industry supports 10.3 million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of more than 40 million Americans.
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