July 17, 2020 02:01 PM UTC

Big Oil's Presumption Of Your Stupidity Is Apparently Endless

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• by: Colorado Pols

Bizwest’s Dan Mika via the Greeley Tribune has a story up today with what may honestly be the dumbest headline you’ll see this week, and in 2020 that is no small achievement:

That’s right, readers, with a straight face, Dan Haley of the Colorado Oil and gas Association wants you to believe that a 2019 law incrementally prioritizing public health over drill-baby-drilling in Colorado has done more to damage the oil and gas industry than the global demand for oil plunging to levels so low it become unaffordable to store current production, let alone produce more oil:

BizWest previously reported oil producers in Weld County cut production by around 60% and plugged thousands of wells between March and April, as the COVID pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders reduced the need for fuel to power cars on commutes, planes in the sky and destabilization in transport and freight supply chains.

That sudden and dramatic drop in domestic demand was matched by a production and price war during the two months between Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s second and third-largest oil producer nations behind the U.S., further depressing global oil prices.

Dan Haley, president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the state had about 20 rigs drilling new wells across the state at the start of 2019, but between COVID and the implementation of sweeping oil regulations from Senate Bill 181, those active rigs have fallen to five across Colorado. He attributes that decline to Gov. Jared Polis and SB 181 supporters.

Got that? The chief talking head for the oil and gas industry in Colorado actually wants you to believe that the decline in oil and gas drilling in Colorado is not attributable to this:

But rather because one state responsible for a small percentage of the total output of the U.S. oil industry tightened up our permitting process for new wells a little. Now, we know that the industry’s many well-compensated defenders in this state are excited to start firing off densely worded justifications for this ridiculous claim, how the fractionally higher cost of compliance that can be reasonably expected from prioritizing public health and safety over “fostering” more oil and gas production means Colorado’s oil and gas industry is somehow more wounded by the historic plunge in the price of oil than, say, Texas.

But that doesn’t change the bottom line: the price of oil fell so low this year that no one on Earth could drill for it profitably–and Senate Bill 19-181 had nothing to do with that development. If the price of oil supports profitable extraction, the industry will comply with whatever rules they have to in order to extract it. And if the price of oil is so low that companies can’t make money drilling for it no matter what the rules for drilling for it are, which it has been for much of this year, due to factors entirely beyond the control of anyone in Colorado?

The free market is what dictates we leave it in the ground, not Jared Polis.

If the oil and gas industry expects sympathy for its plight in 2020, they first need to be honest about it.