Category: Draco

Below is a transcript of Chair Robbins’ testimony during the March 26, 2025 deliberations on the Draco Oil & Gas Development Plan (OGDP). Please excuse any transcription errors.

Chair Robbins: Thanks to all my fellow Commissioners for the deliberative thoughts. I think if anything this should demonstrate once again to the 139 people listening in that we really work hard to make the appropriate determination for the state of Colorado with regard to these sorts of things. I too am in favor of the application for the reasons as articulated by my fellow Commissioners. I believe it addresses the avoid, minimize, and mitigate hierarchy. I appreciate the best management practices and I too want to echo Commissioner Akerman’s points that I think this process has demonstrated to us and to the communities we serve the opportunity to ensure that even relevant approximate local governments can have an ability to be at the table and I think that’s what we’ve done here.

Below is a transcript of Commissioner Oeth’s testimony during the March 26, 2025 deliberations on the Draco Oil & Gas Development Plan (OGDP). Please excuse any transcription errors.

Commissioner Oeth: This is a really tough one, and I really appreciate my fellow Commissioners Cross and Messner starting us out and really doing a very thorough job of laying out so many of the complicated factors and considerations on all sides of this. This really does highlight the really challenging nature of this application—both the things that are really positive about it and those that are potentially concerning about it, and all those things that we have to take into consideration. So thank you for that.

Below is a transcript of Commissioner Ackerman’s testimony during the March 26, 2025 deliberations on the Draco Oil & Gas Development Plan (OGDP). Please excuse any transcription errors.

Commissioner Ackerman: I appreciate my fellow Commissioners and their thoughts. I appreciate all the significant efforts on all sides, as has been expressed by others on this application. I particularly appreciate the thoughtful consideration of local jurisdictions, the staff, the director, and my fellow Commissioners.

I’ll be relatively brief as well. This application is a good illustration of why our deliberative process is so important to addressing ECMC’s mission, which is really simple to understand but complex to execute: protecting public health, safety, welfare, the environment, and wildlife resources. That’s the purpose of the Act, and the method of executing that is generally promulgating and enforcing rules pursuant to that mission.

Below is a transcript of Commissioner Cross’ testimony during the March 26, 2025 deliberations on the Draco Oil & Gas Development Plan (OGDP). Please excuse any transcription errors.

Commissioner Cross: I think initially I’ll start off saying I’m in favor of this application. I think there’s a lot of good things about it. I’ll start with the benefits of the location as applied for. I think when you look at the alternatives that were provided, this is definitely the best alternative. I’ll go into a little bit more detail on alternative 4 and 4.1 as it’s being called later, but just to talk about the overall benefits of this location.

Below is a transcript of Commissioner Messner’s testimony during the March 26, 2025 deliberations on the Draco Oil & Gas Development Plan (OGDP). Please excuse any transcription errors.

Commissioner Messner: Thanks, Mr. Chair. I’m going to have a little different perspective, I think. You know, we’ve been doing this a while now, and there’s a point—and we’ve been seeing it—where oil and gas development and subdivisions are colliding with one another. I think this is a really good example of where that’s happening, and I think we’re starting to see it more often. It’s certainly a challenging situation for all sides. You know, I think you can argue chicken or the egg on these, but the fact is that significantly sized new development, both on the housing side and the oil and gas side, are colliding with one another right now. The areas around the town of Erie is one of those places.