Oil was first produced from the Denver Basin on a ranch outside of Boulder in 1902 . A modern rig drills for oil and gas in Weld County, where there are more than 30,000 active and abandoned wells.What has the oil and gas industry done for you lately?
The CFI is a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank; Stiffler describes it as the “wonky nerds” of Colorado. Withquantifies the industry’s impact on the economy. It also quantifies the industry’s cost to the state, including the costs of pollution, plugging old wells, and property values. The study found that the oil and gas industry — including pipeline construction and other support industries — makes up 1.8 percent of wages in Colorado and 3.3 percent of the state’s gross domestic product. It represents 0.7 percent of the total employment in the state, with around 20,000 jobs.
“In 2018, oil and gas represented $18.5 billion in GDP in Colorado — 5 percent of the economy,” the paper describes. “In 2021, oil and gas represented $14.5 billion in GDP in Colorado — 3.3 percent of the economy. During the same period, Colorado’s GDP increased by 17.2 percent, while the oil and gas sector shrank by 21.4 percent.
“It does highlight the fact that if we do transition from oil and gas, we need to be thoughtful about, in the state, finding ways to backfill those local governments,” Stiffler says. There is already a backfilling mechanism in place for schools in the form of thethat compensates for property wealth disparities; according to the study, that would cover about half of the lost property taxes currently contributed by oil and gas.
Pollution contributes to global warming, as well. Climate-caused disasters have cost the state between $20 and $50 billion since 1980. Ozone precursors also will be costly, with the study projecting that in 2025, cleaning up nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds released into the atmosphere will cost between $100 and $180 million.