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July 09, 2010 03:43 AM UTC

McInnis Fish Videos: More Flip Flops

  • 18 Comments
  • by: ClubTwitty

(UPDATED.  From the InterTubz… – promoted by ClubTwitty)

UPDATE:

As ardy39 points out in the comments, this isn’t the only example of Scott McInnis flopping around on the oil and gas rules. From the GJ Sentinel, June 7, 2009, h/t ardy:


PARACHUTE — Mineral owners Saturday assailed a Democratic lawmaker over the state’s new oil and gas rules, while Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis said new natural gas discoveries across the country are playing the primary role in Colorado’s drilling slowdown.

…McInnis instead gave a speech focusing on the numerous new natural gas plays in other parts of the country that have left the United States awash in natural gas and helped lower prices  and reduce local drilling.

…McInnis is a former western Colorado congressman who recently filed paperwork to run for governor in 2010. In an interview after his speech, he said the state’s new rules aren’t the central cause of Colorado’s drilling slowdown, although they may be a contributing factor.

He said it’s too early to judge the new rules, and the state has a right to be demanding in its regulation of energy companies.

Original diary follows…

 

The Pot thought it had a Kettle to paint with recent attacks around the Mayor’s perhaps awkward positioning on the state oil and gas regulations.

But Scott McInnis’ own record of ongoing reinvention might have suggested some danger in taking this approach.  

A video has now surfaced that has the erstwhile DC congressman and establishment candidate   saying he would NOT ‘roll back’ the state’s new regulations. That clip, of course, is coupled with one of the Lawyer-Lobbyist hitting his more familiar theme, a tune he has been singing oft of late in front of every oil and gas forum he can plead to be able to represent.    

I’ll admit to not being quite in line with the Mayor’s messaging on the oil and gas regulations.

The regulations were crafted over many months with many discussions, documents, briefs, meetings, hearings and more over the course of their formulation. Of course pit liners should be disposed of properly and not buried on site. It should not even be a question.  

Candidates should be honest with the voters–and the interest groups.  We have a lot of natural gas in Colorado. But its relatively expensive to develop. That’s OK. It can provide wealth and return over the long haul. Cheaper plays elsewhere and a severe economic downturn with gas glutted on the market does not bode well for developing a resource at the high end of the cost curve.  But its a massive resource–drillers will be back when the economics favor it.  

Colorado would do well to prepare itself for that inevitability, and the rules are a good first step. They should not be rolled back but strengthened.

Candidates should show the ability to play it straight with Coloradans and help us solve problems today and prepare for the future. Not parse words to try to win the favor of powerful interests. Democrats should not adopt Republican messaging about sensible regulations damaging the economy. No evidence supports that for these rules.    

But rather than saying two quite different things, as McInnis appears to in these clips, Hickenlooper’s message has been a bit more consistent. The Colorado Independent has a different take than some of those other, old-school shrinking publications regarding what was said at the Petroleum Club, and it is quite consistent with Hick’s reported comments in front of the COGA execs.

“I don’t think that we need to go and change a regulation. [We] simply would allow the oil and gas [commission] to handle exemptions. They have that power.”

That is also more or less consistent with his Sentinel op-ed.

The current rules allow the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to examine and modify regulations as issues arise. I have heard from several operators that there are opportunities to cut red tape or tailor regulations for specific basins. As governor, I would encourage the commission to carefully consider these specific concerns and explore ways to address them, so long as protecting our health and environment remains paramount.

So while I would prefer some stronger words from the Mayor, I also believe Scott McInnis 3.0–he would put COGA in the driver’s seat.  

Because in spite of his flailing about on competing clips McInnis has been consistent of late in his pandering to oil and gas.  Such as his appearance at the Petroleum Club:

McInnis came out strong against recent regulations on the industry, which he again argued cost the state jobs, as he has argued countless times over the past year.

…Playing to the energy execs in the crowd at the event, which was sponsored by the Denver Petroleum Club and 9News, McInnis said he would like to see Colorado take the Texas approach to the industry, where the main demand placed on oil and gas corporations was that they provide an accurate phone number [emphasis Twitty] on state paperwork so “we can go after them. We want the jobs,” he said.

McInnis said the people on the commission currently were acting on emotion instead of thinking about jobs and the economy. …He said he would look to appoint exploration advocates to the commission if he were elected governor. Industry access to public lands would be a priority.  

…McInnis celebrated oil and coal;  

…In the debate, McInnis targeted the state’s new 30 percent renewable energy standard. He said that, although he wouldn’t remove it outright, he said he would look at the costs to consumers.

And in front of COGA:  

McInnis has said he would launch a rewrite of the rules, and he repeated his pledge Wednesday at the annual conference of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

He accused Hickenlooper of bowing to pressure from environmentalists.

…”I would remake up the commission. We have three experts in oil and gas on the commission out of nine. It’s not a social engineering commission. It’s the oil and gas commission,” McInnis said, to applause from the crowd of about 450.

So when he told Colorado State of Mind (from the clip, perhaps he was imaging that day he would have to seem reasonable to PBS viewers):

Well, no, I wouldn’t get rid of it.

He was only displaying his pre-flop flip.

BONUS STUMPER:

At the Petroleum Club, McInnis allegedly put forth:

He celebrated legislation he said he put forward in the state that opened Colorado’s Roan plateau to drilling…

What is he speaking of Colorado historians?  (I have some ideas I need to verify–I recall things a bit differently, however…)

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18 thoughts on “McInnis Fish Videos: More Flip Flops”

    2. Cause he’s consistently a loon?

      http://coloradopols.com/showCo…

      Frasier reports provided me reflect 50% reduction in 22 other producing states while Colorado’s was down alomost 70%.  I call that a direct correlation to the regs.  Repeal all new regs and start from scratch.  In the interim we get things jump started again.

      4k employees TBD.  Biggest group would be higher ed as they represent @ 40% of employees. My own executive branch will see the ax as well.  Again, we are still a bit early for specs with caucuses 2 months away.

      snip


      It’s hard to get extremely detailed in a first intervie

  3. Mineral owners furious over Colorado oil and gas rules

    Oil, gas regulations assailed at meeting

    By DENNIS WEBB/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

    June 7, 2009

    PARACHUTE — Mineral owners Saturday assailed a Democratic lawmaker over the state’s new oil and gas rules, while Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis said new natural gas discoveries across the country are playing the primary role in Colorado’s drilling slowdown.

    …

    “This is your fight; this isn’t my fight,” McInnis joked to Curry when she asked the Grand Junction resident whether he wanted to jump into Saturday’s debate over the new rules.

    McInnis instead gave a speech focusing on the numerous new natural gas plays in other parts of the country that have left the United States awash in natural gas and helped lower prices and reduce local drilling.

    …

    McInnis is a former western Colorado congressman who recently filed paperwork to run for governor in 2010. In an interview after his speech, he said the state’s new rules aren’t the central cause of Colorado’s drilling slowdown, although they may be a contributing factor.

    He said it’s too early to judge the new rules, and the state has a right to be demanding in its regulation of energy companies.

    “I just want it to be balanced. I don’t want it to be punitive. I just want it to be fair,” he said.  [emphases added]

    My apologies for the potentially excess quotations, but the story is “old” and archived by the GJ Daily Sentinel. It was a story about a meeting that was originally an informative one for royalty owners, but became a venue to whip Rep. Kathleen Curry over the new rules. McInnis didn’t seem too concerned about the impact of the rules last year, did he?

    Here is the original link for the story:

    http://www.gjsentinel.com/news…

    The story is now archived and this link no longer exists. Those of you who know how to get archived news stories can search out this story.

    1. I didn’t remember that.  That line by McInnis is news that should have been repeated around the state.  A responsible Republican leader who honestly assesses the issue, what a breath of fresh air.  Too bad he’s run away from that statement.

  4. CT, my cognitory and intellectual capacities have become increasingly shackled by age and self abuse, but I think a law was passed several years ago that allowed development of the “Naval Oil Shale Reserve” for natural gas.

    Didn’t congress set it aside for oil for the Navy, which kept the gas boys off? I could be completely wrong here, but I have this dim recollection of something like that. If I am correct, I thought it was after his tenure that it happened, though.

    1. Only Hefley sponsored it…

      H.R.1163 : To amend title 10, United States Code, to transfer jurisdiction over Naval Oil Shale Reserves Numbered 1 and 3 to the Secretary of the Interior and to authorize the leasing of such reserves for oil and gas exploration and production.

      Sponsor: Rep Hefley, Joel [CO-5] (introduced 3/20/1997)      Cosponsors (2)

      McInnis, and Skaggs co-sponsored it.

      Hefley did the work, and now Scooter wants the credit?  What Leadership!

  6. CT, when was the State of Mind interview?  It’s hard to believe he said it at all, but I have to believe it was this last winter at the latest.

      1. The Colorado State of Mind interview was 11 March 2010.  

        10 May 2010 was the Aaron Harber interview.

        So the first one was still in the winter, but just barely.  He said this stuff two months apart.  

    1. Twitty is the source for anything O&G.

      Doesn’t it sound like Scooter just heard the term “best practices”? But, now he is trying to sound like a professor with it’s use?

  8. When he blasts the make up of the oil and gas commission: primary regulators, ranchers, and local officials.  

    From the Denver Business Journal:

    In 2007, a law signed by Gov. Bill Ritter expanded the number of commissioners from seven to nine and slashed the number of members with oil and gas industry experience from five to three. The new board members include heads of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Department of Natural Resources, with the remaining slots going to representatives from local governments, environmental or wildlife protection groups, a member with soil conservation or reclamation experience, and a member from agriculture who also owns mineral rights.

    So McInnis wants to lose the rancher, directors of the CO Depts of Public Health & Environment and Natural Resources, the local elected official, and especially the reclamation expert and conservationist.  

    Because involving the heads of the Depts responsible for the permitting, a representative of agricultural/mineral interests, someone from local government, and a reclamation expert is such a bad idea when approving very impactful–potentially deadly–industrial activity.      

    1. From the Colorado Revised Statutes (C.R.S.), Title 34, Article 60

      The Oil and Gas Conservation Act (as amended)

      34-60-104. (2)(a)(I) Effective July 1, 2007, the commission shall consist of nine members, seven of whom shall be appointed by the governor with the consent of the senate and two of whom, the executive director of the department of natural resources and the executive director of the department of public health and environment, shall be ex officio voting members. At least two members shall be appointed from west of the continental divide, and, to the extent possible, consistent with this paragraph (a), the other members shall be appointed taking into account the need for geographical representation of other areas of the state with high levels of oil and gas activity or employment. Three members shall be individuals with substantial experience in the oil and gas industry, and at least two of said three members shall have a college degree in petroleum geology or petroleum engineering; one member shall be a local government official; one member shall have formal training or substantial experience in environmental or wildlife protection; one member shall have formal training or substantial experience in soil conservation or reclamation; and one member shall be actively engaged in agricultural production and also be a royalty owner. Excluding the executive directors from consideration, no more than four members of the commission shall be members of the same political party. [emphases added]

      This is a pretty complex matrix of expertise, geographic representation, and political party affiliation.

      And it is the law.

      The governor can not make unilateral changes to the make up of the commission. Period.

      Also, note the phrase with the consent of the senate. If the governor dismisses five or more commissioners on his first day in office, then no decisions can be made by the commission until the Senate confirms the new members. Won’t that be a wonderful way to promote the industry in Colorado!

      (The COGCC website is down through tomorrow for scheduled maintenance, so I can’t provide a link to the Commissioner bio’s so that you can verify for yourselves that there are more than three experts, with extensive experience in all different aspects of the industry, on the commission.)

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