SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES
Colorado State Capitol, Old Supreme Court Chambers
200 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, Colorado
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
9:00 a.m. Mountain Time

• Press Release - State and Local Experts Warn That Federal Regulation of Hydraulic Fracturing Will Destroy Jobs, Harm America’s Energy Security (5/2/2012)

OVERSIGHT FIELD HEARING ON:

• "Federal Regulation: Economic, job and energy security implications of federal hydraulic fracturing regulation"

Watch the Archived Hearing Webcast:

OPENING STATEMENT:

The Honorable Doug Lamborn
Chairman

WITNESSES AND TESTIMONY:

Panel I

Colorado State Representative Jerry Sonnenberg
Chairman
House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee

Kathleen Clarke
Director
Utah Office of Public Land Policy Coordination

Shawn Reese
Policy Director
Office of Governor of WY

Bruce Baizel
Senior Staff Attorney
Earthworks
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Jen Palazzolo
Erie Rising
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Panel II

Craig Meis
District 1 Commissioner
Mesa County, Colorado

Kathleen M. Sgamma
Vice President of Government & Public Affairs
Western Energy Alliance
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Chris Rockers
Chief Financial Officer
Magna Energy Services
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Mike Quirk
Vice President of Product Support
Wagner Equipment, Co.
Associated Equipment Distributors
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Dr. Lisa McKenzie
Research Associate
Univ. of CO School of Public Health
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Ben Rainbolt
Executive Director
Rocky Mountain Farmers Union
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Thom Kerr
Acting Director
Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
Colorado Department of Natural Resources

BACKGROUND:

Under the Obama Administration, federal oil and natural gas production has significantly declined due to burdensome red tape and onerous bureaucracy. Meanwhile, energy development on State and private lands, not under federal regulation, has flourished. Members will examine the on-the-ground impacts of the Interior Department’s proposed regulations on hydraulic fracturing. A draft copy of the new regulations, reported in February by Politico, show that the Obama Administration is preparing to add significant red tape and delays to the job creating energy production that comes from harnessing U.S. shale gas resources. Hydraulic fracturing is a decades old technology, regulated by the States, that is necessary for the creation of thousands of new jobs and the extraction of large quantities of oil and natural gas from unconventional shale reservoirs.