Colorado Petroleum Council Responds to Senate Bill 181’s Passage through House Finance Committee

DENVER, March 25, 2019 – The Colorado House of Representatives’ Finance Committee this evening advanced Senate Bill 181 on a party-line vote. The measure has now passed through three State Senate committees, the full State Senate, and two State House committees since its introduction earlier this month, each on party-line votes.

“For a bill as consequential as Senate Bill 181 to be rammed through the entire legislative process in less than a month should appall every Coloradan,” said Colorado Petroleum Council spokesman Ben Marter. “Its passage through the House Finance Committee today came in spite of a fiscal note that, perhaps intentionally, ignores grave fiscal impacts on the state should the bill ultimately be signed into law.

“Since its introduction, the authors of Senate Bill 181 have repeatedly dismissed any suggestion that the measure could serve as a de facto moratorium on new natural gas and oil development in Colorado. But just last week, Adams County commissioners unilaterally imposed precisely such a ban, going so far as to cite the expectation of this measure’s passage as the impetus for taking action. As we have said previously, either Senate Bill 181 allows for communities to ban energy development, or it doesn’t. We continue to request that the bill’s authors clarify this discrepancy.”

Earlier on Monday, Colorado Petroleum Council Associate Director Chris McGowne testified to the House Finance Committee in opposition to the measure. The full text of his remarks can be viewed here.

The Colorado Petroleum Council is a division of API, which represents all segments of America’s oil and natural gas industry. Our more than 600 members produce, process and distribute most of the nation’s energy. The industry supports more than ten million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization. In our first 100 years, API has developed more than 700 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.