March 20, 2009 04:22 AM UTC

Josh Penry Just Makes Stuff Up (Vanishing Drills Edition)

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• by: Colorado Pols

(Bumped into Friday by popular demand – promoted by Colorado Pols)

It’s been pointed out that we spend a fair amount of time these days deconstructing the activities and public statements of Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry. Our attention is variously credited to partisanship, a “man-crush,” or the simple fact that his leadership has been a string of unqualified disasters and what bleeds, as they say in the news business, leads.

Sorry to say, it’s starting to look more and more like the latter. Turning to the new oil and gas regulations now arriving in the Senate for approval…well, you know what Penry has to say about them. You’ve heard it a hundred times in fact, as he said in this recent NBC-11 report:

“Colorado is losing significantly more [energy activity] than any other state,” [Pols emphasis] said Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, (R) Grand Junction. “There’s a strong argument to be made it’s because of these rules.”

It’s become a popular claim among Republicans in the last few weeks that Colorado has lost more drilling rigs, percentagewise, than any other state in the Rocky Mountain region. We were forwarded an email response from Penry to questions about this–is he, you know, sure that’s right?

Penry’s response to questions about this statement:

…The Piceance Basin has lost 60 percent of its rig count. The next closest is NM at about 50 percent (not coincidentally, until recently NM was also pushing over-reaching new regulations. Their Governor decided to back off, recognizing these trends). Most other regions are at 30 or 40 percent decline. Some states are significantly less than that.

The drill rig count is a matter of public record.

Thanks.

Josh

To verify this claim, Sen. Penry directed questioners to the Divestco North American Rig Counts website. And here’s what it says about the Rocky Mountain region–again, where he directed inquiries:

**We’re highlighting this section to remind readers that the reason we are citing these figures is because Penry referred people to them. See discussion below, which recovered after briefly veering into, as they say, “teh stupid.”

As the “% Drilling” column shows, the only state with a higher percentage of rigs operating than Colorado is North Dakota, and virtually every number quoted by Penry is, by his own source, bogus.

The public understands that energy companies aren’t “fleeing Colorado” because of these proposed rules, drillers are going idle because the economy, and with it the price of every commodity such as natural gas, is crashing. And if you compare what’s really happening here compared to other states, it’s clear that the proposed rules have nothing to do with these decisions. Colorado is doing at least as well as any of our neighbors.

This is why Penry is still worth talking about–it’s the unprecedented mendacity. It really is unique on a bipartisan level. It just keeps happening, like a 100-car pileup in the fog, If would be scary if it wasn’t so plainly counterproductive. They’re Googling your bullshit, Josh! Like Dave “The Resume” Balmer can tell you, just a little too late, that’s the kiss of death.