Boulder County Commissioners extend oil and gas moratorium until 2021

Boulder County will not consider any new oil and gas development applications until at least 2021.

That’s the result of a vote by the Boulder County Commissioners on July 14 that extended the moratorium set to expire this month through Dec. 31, 2020.

The moratorium will allow staff to review and update the county’s oil and gas regulations in light of the passage of Senate Bill 181 last year, which provided some measure of local control over natural resource extraction.

The new process will include opportunities for further public input throughout the fall — in the virtual public hearing this week, comments from community members widely supported extending the moratorium.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic slowing everything down, we simply need more time to ensure we get our regulations right,” Commissioner Elise Jones said in a statement announcing the moratorium extension. “Extending our moratorium on new oil and gas development to the year’s end is both responsible and necessary in order to fulfill our duty to our constituents. They deserve the strongest possible protections and a pause on any applications until those are in place.”

Commissioner Deb Gardner cited the fact that the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) hasn’t finished it’s own rulemaking as another reason to extend the moratorium.

“With too much still unknown about what the [COGCC] will do this fall with its new rules and how those might affect our local regulations, it doesn’t make sense to rush finalization of our regulations or lift the moratorium until we know we have the best possible regulations we can put in place,” Commissioner Deb Gardner added.

The moratorium extension comes as several heavily indebted oil and gas producers in the U.S. have filed for bankruptcy in recent weeks.