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June 09, 2009 12:20 AM UTC

McInnis Defends Ritter's Oil and Gas Rules

  • 25 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Not a misprint, as the Grand Junction Sentinel reports:

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.

“The new regulations basically took away my minerals rights,” Tom Rutledge told state Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, at a meeting of the National Association of Royalty Owners in Parachute…

“I don’t appreciate the tone of this entire discussion,” Curry said after also hearing criticism from other mineral owners, including one who said “Demoncrats” are responsible for taking people’s property rights.

The new rules were pushed by Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter and approved this year by a Democrat-controlled Legislature.

“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. [Pols emphasis]

There couldn’t be a clearer distinction between Scott McInnis’ hearteningly reasonable defense of the state’s new oil and gas production rules–in a venue where he could have just as easily tossed the crowd anti-Ritter “Demoncrat” red meat–and upcoming primary opponent Josh Penry’s silly, over-the-top caterwauling on behalf of the energy industry against those rules.

Unfortunately for McInnis, honesty doesn’t win Republican primaries–money does. That’s why Penry sees no downside from inventing totally bogus figures about the drilling slump in Colorado, if doing so services the goals of his energy industry benefactors. Unlike McInnis, who for all his flaws still apparently feels the need to keep his statements at least marginally based in reality, Josh Penry knows who’s buttering his proverbial bread.

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25 thoughts on “McInnis Defends Ritter’s Oil and Gas Rules”

  1. More from the ‘Penry makes stuff up’ file as he blasts the O&G rules and claims the industry is leaving the state…

    link

    The Piceance is yet another region of North America that holds great promise to meet the energy needs of America in the 21st century, and the exploration and production industry is moving forward to develop the natural gas reserves of this resource rich basin.  

    …The Piceance Basin is located in Colorado, and contains natural gas and oil shale in abundant amounts. The basin has many productive pay zones, but much of the current industry attention is on developing the Williams Fork of the Mesaverde formation. This is a 3,000-foot thick section of tight gas sands.  

    Several companies are actively drilling for natural gas in the Piceance Basin. Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) has 3.1 Tcfe of proved reserves in the basin on 190,900 net acres. This represents 68% of its total proved reserves.

    Bill Barrett Corporation (NYSE:BBG) has 372 Bcfe of proved reserves in the basin. The company has two rigs working to develop its acreage, and plans up to 80 wells in 2009.

    Berry Petroleum (NYSE:BRY) has proved reserves of 250 Bcfe, and has daily production of 20 Mmcfe per day from the basin. The company drilled 75 wells here in 2008.

    The bigger oil companies are also developing the Piceance. Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) holds 9,000 acres in the basin. The company expects to drill 30 wells here in 2009, and 150 over the next five years. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) has 125,000 net acres under lease in the Piceance Basin. The company added to its acreage here when it bought out the interests of Plains Exploration and Production (NYSE:PXP) in a two-stage deal in 2008.

    At least McInnis has the courage to speak some truth…kudos to him, although I never thought I would type that!

    Penry, apparently, will say anything to support his paymasters.  It might be interesting to see if industry splits on the primary–big companies going with their Lawyer-Lobbyist and the ‘independents’ following the chicken-little overblown gas assoc (COGA).

    1. Why don’t you call up Marathon, Oxy, Berry, etc. and see how many rigs they have running right now, dip shit.  It’s one thing to hold rights to proven reserves — its quite another to actually develop those reserves.  

      McInnis wouldn’t know the oil and gas rules if they jumped up and bit him in the ass. This is just him playing to his instincts to ride the fence on an issue (he’s used to doing it).  

      1. building additional infrastructures, still drilling (and waiting until their manipulations of supply drive the prices back up–which have plummeted 60% in 6 months) to drill more.

        Read the Baker-Hughs reports.  Read the shareholder filings of the companies, read the analysis of energy experts (i.e. “three words” Too. Much. Gas” etc. etc. etc.) then come back with facts and figures rather than BULLSHIT to make your case.

        Oh wait, you can’t.

      2. Most people get to know others before calling them names.

        By the way, few people are going to spend what it takes to develop reserves for which there isn’t much of a market.

    2. The courage to speak the truth is worse than unhelpful in winning Republican primaries. Lies, bull and fear-mongering have become absolute requirements. The GOP, on both state and national levels, has indeed become the place where the lunatics are running the asylum.

  3. It’s nice to see McInnis enter the public square on the oil and gas issue.  Where’s he been the past 2 years?  Based on his comments it seems clear why he’s been afraid to say anything.  It takes unprecedented arrogance to stand up at a meeting in Parachute — where jobs are being lost day by day — and say something like this.  

    It’s well past time for the oil and gas companies that employ McInnis to cut their contracts with him.  He just doesn’t get it.  

    1. because the price of a tcf in Houston has dropped by 60%.  Gas companies drilled to fast and inflated supplies.  

      Maybe you are just too thick-headed to understand or perhaps you intentionally spread untruths to further your own agenda.  Nor are these positions mutually exclusive.  It is quite likely that both apply here.

      Again, please lay out the argument that the oil and gas rules have resulted in the economic downturn affecting the GLOBAl energy market.  

      Cite your sources, pay attention to rig counts in other states, explain the relationship to pipeline capacity in the Piceance, and of the Rocky Mnt. energy fields to the new shale plays in the midwest, PA, and NY–where the market is right where the commodity is produced.

      Otherwise, just bottle that crap you spew.  You might be able to heat your own house next winter.  

      1. There was a time when Penry was a decent legislator.  He recognized his place in the minority, but he also recognized his responsibility to his constituents.  There was a time when he would reach across the aisle, explain his ideas to members of the majority, and do whatever he had to do to get legislation passed on behalf of his constituents.

        When Penry became Minority Leader, his constituency apparently changed.  At that point, it was all Wadhams, all the time.

        All of a sudden Penry abandoned doing whatever he had to do to get results for the people he represented, and started doing whatever he had to do to curry favor with Dick Wadhams.

        That sudden turnaround, to me at least, demonstrates a certain lack of principles.

        If Penry runs for Governor, it will be up to him to define which Penry is running.

        That’s not going to be easy.

        1. Josh the Minority Leader will look like a moderate…

          I have been around long enough to remember the Josh of whom you speak.  He was an intelligent, reasonable man–even if too conservative, then, for my taste.  

          This last year, however, with all his hysteria over the O&G rules, letting Schulthies, Harvey and the other wingers get away with slandering gays, wishing for babies to get AIDs (while calling oneself ‘pro-life’), etc. has been a lesson in what a power-hungry politician will do to stay on the public dole and beholden himself to corporate interests at the expense of his constituency.  

            1. from the get-go.  It is what his own Mesa County Republican Caucus knew when they refused to back Penry and chose Matt Smith, giving Penry the Laodicean treatment and Maunder Minimum .  People who are in it for ego and self are the most dangerous of all politicians.  

              Penry has been COGA’s go-to puppet from the beginning.  I’m sure Penry is O&G’s lobbyist Kathy “The Thing on the Fourble Board” Hall’s favorite puppet.  O&G are the ones who backed Penry’s failed A.52.  And there is no doubt that tourism, the ski industry, hunters and fishermen, recreational enthusiasts, water rights holders and lovers of our beautiful landscapes would suffer as Penry keeps playing O&G’s bagman.  

              One needs to look no further than Penry backer Tim Foster’s own words to see that Penry is in for himself and NOT constituents, although local skin head/klan type bigoted Penry supporters like MesaMod would want people to believe different.

              “I wish I didn’t have to support guys like Josh Penry.”  -MesaModerate

              2. It might be worth using the proper terms, WST.  It was the Mesa County Assembly you’re referring to.  The details you so conveniently leave out include Penry going on to trounce Matt Smith 2-1 in the primary election and then winning with about 70% of the vote in the general election.  

                This constant stream of attack against Penry from Ralphie and WST is nothing more than sour grapes.  WST ran campaigns and lost (many times) and Ralphie is now and will always be a part of the loyal 25% of voters in Mesa County that will never like Penry or his policies.  

                Again, let it go…

                2. I like Penry.  Well, the “old” Penry anyway.  I thought the “old” Penry was a skillful legislator.  The “new” Penry?  Not so much.

                  As far as the numbers in Mesa County, there is no doubt in my mind that if Josh runs for Governor, he’ll carry Mesa County.  That’s not going to help him much, however.  He’ll have to reinvent himself yet again to win Statewide.  The “new” Penry won’t carry the State.

                  1. Anyone who’s spent time on your crappy blog or watching your antics on Pols can pretty well discern your vitriol for Penry.  You ran a constant attack on him when he ran for Senate and you’ve never had nice things to say about him, Ralph.  Be honest.

                    Tell the truth about your disdain for Penry…he was elevated to legislative leadership the same year your golden boy (Bernie) was dethroned.  Still stings, heh?  

                3. I’ve never ran a campaign in my entire life.  But that is the kind of lies Penry supports like to spout.  I’m sure you do not like the truth or the light of day shown on Penry, so for that matter alone, I will never “let it go”.  Especially, on the advice of the clueless, goofy TaxCheat.

              1. Another republican pigeon poster, here to flap in, make a lot of noise, shit all over everything, then flap away. Learn a new act, noob.

    2. It was then-Rep. Bernie Buescher. Penry went along for the credit. As we saw in the last session, Penry couldn’t get much of anything done because he didn’t have Buescher in the majority pushing things through for Mesa County.

      Get a grip.

      1. is right. Bernie was with us from the start. Josh jumped on the bandwagon when he realized there was no upside for him in supporting the practice of putting toxic liquids in evaporation pits in proximity to peoples’ homes.

        He did the right thing…but probably for the wrong reasons.

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