In 2008, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission overhauled the state permitting process for oil and gas development in Colorado. Under the new regulations, public health, environmental and wildlife concerns for the first time became a central part of the permitting process.

Earthjustice represented the conservation community in the hotly-contested administrative proceedings, which lasted more than eight months. We advocated for regulations that opened the permitting process to the public and protected communities and the environment. We also worked to counter an intense campaign by the oil and gas industry to weaken the proposed rules.

After the rules were adopted in December 2008, we successfully beat back industry efforts to overturn them in the Colorado state legislature and in court. Colorado’s precedent-setting rules raised the bar for state oil and gas regulation and have served as a model for numerous other states and federal regulators in the years that followed.