It’s enough to make a Colorado native groan. The Centennial State has surged to status as a top-five state in population, employment, wage and salary and personal income growth, reports the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business.

This year, some 89,000 more people are expected to move to the state, drawn by its booming economy, snowcapped peaks, trout-filled rivers, plentiful sunshine and seemingly inexhaustible recreational opportunities on vast public lands. To buy a house in Denver right now, you’d better be fast on the draw to your wallet.

The state’s population is highly educated, thin—if you believe the research—and maverick. In 1972, Coloradans waved off the Olympics; today they’re happy to host “pot tourists” at numerous retail marijuana dispensaries. Politicos strategizing around the upcoming presidential election consider the state a microcosm of the national electorate—balanced among conservatives, liberals and independents.

With development snaking into traditional agricultural and oil and gas producing areas, particularly along the Front Range, it’s no surprise the state is also a bellwether for legislative and regulatory threats to the industry.

Decades ago, producers established one of the most prolific and long-lived fields in the U.S., Wattenberg, in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, east and north of Denver’s sprawl. The unconventional resource revolution revived Wattenberg about six years ago, and the greater D-J Basin is now a liquids-rich hub of activity.

Colorado’s governor is no more easily pigeonholed than is the electorate. A geologist-turned-restaurateur-turned politician, John Hicklenlooper likes to solve problems through consensus. As conflicts among stakeholders morphed into fracking ban ballot initiatives and battles for local control over industry activities in recent years, he has sought to defuse the situation by bringing varying interests to the table.

Colorado’s oil and gas regulations are fairly robust compared with those in many producing states. Last year the governor convened a group of stakeholders to propose new air rules to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas operations. The state’s Air Quality Control Commission adopted the rules—the first by a state to regulate methane leaks from oil and gas activity.

This past fall, with the battle for more local government control over oil and gas operations festering, Hickenlooper formed an Oil and Gas Task Force to recommend policy or legislation and harmonize state and local regulatory structures.

Nine official recommendations won the necessary two-thirds vote in late February. Representing the industry on the task force were Cirque Resources president and CEO Peter Dea; XTO president Randy Cleveland; Brad Holly, Anadarko Petroleum’s vice president of operations, Rockies; Perry Pearce, ConocoPhillips manager of state government affairs, Rockies; and Scot Woodall, president and CEO of Bill Barrett Corp.

The recommendations call for collaboration among local governments, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) and operators, providing for memorandums of understanding when necessary in locating large-scale oil and gas facilities in urban mitigation areas. They would establish a framework for incorporating drilling plans into municipal planning.

Others would enhance local government liaison and designee roles, increase the COGCC’s full-time staff, and provide for a complaint line, mobile air monitoring units and a human health risk assessment. An oil and gas clearinghouse would be formed.

Additional recommendations call for reduced truck traffic from oil and gas operations, renewal by the state’s general assembly of the methane emission rules, and COGCC implementation of a compliance assistance program.

In the aftermath of the report, environmental groups and local government control advocates fumed, while the oil and gas industry perhaps breathed easier. Wells Fargo senior analyst David Tameron wrote, “On first look, the most important takeaway is the task force did not provide local government the control or authority to enact its own rules, which in theory would be more onerous. Net-net, our view is that none of the nine recommendations would pose a hurdle for the oil/gas industry.”

Twenty-four “minority report” recommendations came close to passing. Tameron said these could be contentious “should they make it onto lawmakers’ white board.” They would give more authority to local governments; require full and public disclosure of chemicals used in operations; require residential drilling plans; and more.

In Colorado, the battles aren’t over.

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