Loveland City Council extends oil and gas moratorium another six months – Loveland Reporter-Herald

The Loveland City Council postponed a new law updating oil and gas regulations at its Tuesday meeting and unanimously voted to extend the current moratorium for another six months.

The city’s current moratorium was set to expire Sept. 1, but Councilwoman Dana Foley filed a motion to extend the moratorium because city staff received new comments on the first draft of the ordinance. Foley also said council members didn’t have enough information and pointed to one specific standards document that wasn’t included in the program package.

The day before the city council meeting, city staff received a letter from the American Petroleum Institute (API), according to Kim Overholt, city communications manager.

The letter said the first draft of the ordinance the city submitted to them for review contains several provisions that either duplicate state laws or supersede the jurisdiction of state regulators.

“Regulations must be both reasonable and necessary. It is equally important that the actions are supported by solid evidence. We note that many of the recommendations made by the city duplicate efforts at the state level,” Alejandra Major, deputy director of API Colorado, said in the letter.

The provisions of the contested API regulation, of which there were 13 in total, concerned, among other things, the regulation of pipelines, the expiration of permits, and how far from residential buildings oil and gas production facilities can be built.

The provisions in the first draft of the ordinance state that development cannot be set back less than 1,000 feet from residential buildings, but API said the regulations should be consistent with the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission regulation, which specifies a setback of 500 feet.

The difference in delays to the development is a testament to the differing desires of the city council. Mayor Jackie Marsh and Councilwoman Laura Light-Kovacs have called for stricter regulation of the industry, while Councilman Steve Olson and Foley have called for less restrictive measures.

Loveland City Manager Rod Wensing agreed with the decision to extend the moratorium during a city council meeting.

“When it comes to this topic, because it is a council-imposed moratorium, so to speak, the staff is here to support that moratorium… It’s really up to the council whether you want to expand this more, have more conversations, have more conversations with the community. The staff is here to support you,” Wensing said.

City Development Director Brett Limbaugh also agreed with the decision to extend the moratorium and postpone the scheduled agenda item at Tuesday’s meeting.

“We have a draft regulation for you to review tonight, but we have received comments from industry experts this week and I would like to take the opportunity to incorporate those comments into the regulation if we feel it is appropriate and perhaps provide you with a more polished document,” Limbaugh said.

Councilors said they appreciated Limbaugh’s honesty, but before the vote on the motion, there were questions about which side of the argument would be better represented in the updating process.

Olson and Samson expressed similar concerns they have raised in the past about the oil and gas industry not being represented during the rule update process. Olson suggested that representatives from the oil and gas industry make presentations at future council meetings to “have both sides of the table.”

Light-Kovacs agreed with Olson and Samson, but also said the other side needed to be equally represented.

“I agree, we should have all sides of the table, and that should include some of the (nongovernmental) environmental and social justice organizations. So if we’re going to include industry, let’s include those people as well. That way we get the full picture, we hear from different perspectives and we can decide the best path forward for Loveland,” Light-Kovacs said.

Overholt was part of the city staff working on the rule update and said the process is now refocused on getting more input from the public and stakeholders.

She added that staff were doing their best to gather feedback from a range of stakeholders, but said the crowdsourcing platform used to connect with important environmental stakeholders was not working properly.

“We couldn’t get in touch with these people directly; all emails were returned. There was no way to communicate with the community people to invite them after their initial input to come back and provide more feedback,” Overholt said.

Overholt did not predict when the ordinance would return to the City Council for consideration, but said any new versions would include many balanced considerations.

“We need to make sure that it’s balanced when we’re collecting information,” Overholt said. “We try to avoid bias and bias, so we look at who all the stakeholders are, including residents, so that’s the process that we’re going to use.”

To review the draft regulation and provide feedback, visit lovgov.org/oilandgas.

Originally published: August 9, 2024 at 4:28 PM