Oil and Gas

More than 2,000 Wyoming oil and gas leases will be reconsidered for their impacts to the climate, as part of a settlement approved in federal court last week.

The Interior Department is reopening lease sales on public lands. However, the agency announced that it was 80% less acreage than the oil and gas industry nominated for leasing. The Interior also increased royalty rates.

Today on Colorado Edition, we learn what’s behind the warm and dry weather so far this winter on the Front Range, and what impact the lack of snow could have next spring. We also hear about an emerging technology that could prevent oil and gas producers from abandoning unprofitable wells. Plus, we explore the end-of-life cycle for these wells and who typically pays to clean them up when producers walk away.

Emerging advances in renewable technologies could help extend the operating life of aging oil wells and help address Colorado’s orphan well problem.

The Biden administration wants Congress to increase drilling companies' royalty rates, which have stayed at 12.5% for 100 years.

What happens when oil and gas companies go bankrupt and can’t afford to properly shut down their wells? The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is trying to decide.

Today on Colorado Edition, we hear about upcoming changes to the police and fire departments in Aurora. We also learn about the first nuclear plant that will use Natrium technology, and hear what happens to oil and gas wells when their producers go bankrupt.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects oil, gas and coal production – and CO2 emissions – to rise in 2022. Extreme temperatures are partly to blame.

Environmentalists say that some of the largest methane polluters in the state are benefiting from a sleight of hand built into a deeply flawed emissions reporting system. They say those large-scale polluters might not be who you expect, pointing to a little-known natural gas producer called Terra Energy Partners. According to federal greenhouse gas emissions data, this small, privately owned company – headquartered in Texas, but operating exclusively on Colorado’s Western Slope - was the fourth largest source of methane emissions from the oil and gas industry in the entire United States in 2019.

Between new environmental justice legislation and a ban on a statewide cap-and-trade-policy we look at Colorado's goals for reducing carbon emissions, and how they state plans to achieve them.