By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
One of the most repeated campaign promises U.S. Rep.-elect Jeff Hurd made to the people of Colorado’s 3rd District was to pursue the Trump agenda of energy dominance.
“We have abundant opportunities in the district for energy development and production. We have coal, oil and gas resources,” he said. “We also have large reserves of mined resources, such as uranium and vanadium in Western Colorado, we have it all.”
The Trump administration and the majority Republican Congress and Senate, along with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), can have an outsized impact on the goal of energy dominance in the U.S. through reducing regulations on oil, gas and coal on federal lands (BLM).
When it comes to private land and state administered land, things become more complicated, as Colorado Democrats have a grip on the regulatory structure though its governor, state Senate and state Representatives, along with all the regulatory agencies.
The federal agencies are going to be operating in a structure and with goals that directly conflict with Colorado state governance.
Colorado’s approach to oil and gas exploration and development began to undergo a huge shift in regulatory policy under former Gov. Bill Ritter, when he changed the makeup of the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission in 2007 to include individuals who represented extreme environmental types to the Regulatory Commission.
As quoted in an article in Forbes, Ritter acknowledged his green energy agenda saying, “I signed 57 bills into law that transformed what had been a traditional fossil fuel economy into one that was focused on growing renewables, transitioning from coal to natural gas and energy efficiency, which targeted energy conservation.
When Gov. John Hickenlooper was elected, he doubled down on Ritter’s efforts. In 2015, with Congressman Jared Polis by his side, Hickenlooper announced a “blue ribbon” commission of 18 people to be tasked with studying oil and gas development in the state. The effort was in response to Polis’ heavily-funded citizen initiatives to further cripple oil and gas development in the state, and to kill initiatives backed by former Reps. Jerry Sonnenburg and Frank McNulty (R ) that wanted to fight back against the Polis initiatives and incentivize oil and gas development in the state.
When Jared Polis became governor in 2018, his administration completely upended the mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission. They changed the name of the regulatory agency to Energy and Carbon Management Commission, and changed the mission of the bureaucratic agency from fostering the development of oil and gas to regulating oil and gas. Under the newly created ECMC the agency also took authority for geothermal and carbon capture and sequestration and underground gas storage.
Under Polis, Colorado is producing oil and gas at the lowest rates in recent times. In 2021 alone, oil and gas operations in Colorado dropped 11%.
According to numbers from the Department of Local Affairs in Colorado, “As a result of the declining production, Garfield County’s share of Colorado’s total gas production has decreased from 41% to 28% during the past 5 years.”
Very few people outside the government realize the Bureau of Land Management has an MOU with the Colorado ECMC concerning regulating fossil fuel development.
The MOU is updated regularly and defines the role of the state and the federal government’s role in permitting and inspecting oil and gas wells within the state. One of the ways the Trump Administration may be able to wrestle some of the overregulation on Colorado oil and gas development would be to review and adjust the MOU components of the documents to more reflect the goals of the Trump administration’s goal for energy dominance.
Hurd spoke about the importance to national security, and energy economy that Western Colorado can bring to fruition for the good of the country, and the prosperity that can be achieved by those living and working in the district.
“I want to see cheaper energy costs, abundant energy not only for ourselves, but also for our allies overseas,” he said. He talked about the importance of developing and exporting LNG to allies, and how that brings national security at home, as well as to allies in Europe.
Hurd also supports advanced nuclear and small modular nuclear projects, where it makes sense to have those options; exploring the option of advanced nuclear energy and small modular nuclear energy is also a topic that aligns with the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, as well. AGNC is composed of local governments located within the 3rd Congressional District.
“I would love to work with and support AGNC on small modular and advanced nuclear energy. I want to fight for good energy policy. Bad Democrat policy had acted like a regressive tax on the people in the district and all over the country,” he said. Continuing, he said bad energy policy hurts the most vulnerable, as it increases costs to the elderly, families and small businesses.
Hurd is looking forward to working with Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman, he says, and others to repeal bad energy policy and legislate in a way that promotes a vibrant energy economy.
“Bad Democrat regulation and overregulation has strangled Western Colorado, and I want to see that change moving forward,” he said.
Rep. Hageman is a well-known litigator, having more than 34 years experience. She is nationally-known for her direct legal challenges to the Obama Administration’s federal overreach concerning property rights, water rights and exposing federal land and wildlife mismanagement, while fighting back against unconstitutional and unlawful acts of unelected bureaucrats.
With her extensive experience participating in complex trials against the federal government and agencies, even to the U.S. Supreme Court, Hurd can have no stronger ally.