American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2016 - 17

IndustryDigest
ruling is the first significant district
court ruling about any of the coastal
lawsuits.
According to press accounts,
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry
in the past has referred to more than a
dozen coastal parishes suing the
industry over the state's eroding coast as
"coastal extortion," and the AG
contends such lawsuits benefit only the
attorneys involved. "It is disappointing
to see the lawsuit filed in Vermilion
Parish. We have conveyed repeatedly to
the coastal parishes that litigation
beyond those already filed in Cameron,
Jefferson, and Plaquemines were
counterintuitive," Landry is quoted. "We
cannot allow these differing and
competing interests to push claims that
collectively impact the public policy for
our coast and our entire state."
LOGA and LMOGA note that a
similar lawsuit filed by trial lawyers on
behalf of the Southeast Flood Protection
Agency-East also was dismissed in
federal court last year. ❒

Anti-Industry Petitions
Fall Short In Colorado
DENVER-Industry spokesmen
breathed a sigh of relief after the
Colorado secretary of state's Aug. 29
announcement that a pair of initiatives
to limit oil and gas activity had failed to
collect enough valid signatures to make
the November ballot.
"The cycle of constant campaigning
and political uncertainty is over,"
expressed Colorado Oil & Gas
Association President Dan Haley.
"Property owners no longer have to
worry about losing their constitutionally
protected rights. Local and state
governments will continue to get
severance and other tax funding for
schools, parks, libraries and roads. And
working families are protected from the
consequences of driving a vital industry
out of the state.
"Coloradans have sent a clear
message that they don't want to resolve
these complex issues at the ballot box,"
Haley added.
Pro-industry advocacy group
Protecting Colorado's Economy,
Environment, and Energy Independence
agrees, says Communications Director
Karen Crummy. "Colorado voters
recognized that these extreme measures

would destroy the state's economy and
take away private property rights," she
responds. "Voters declined to sign (the
petitions) because they understood the
devastating consequences they would
have on all Coloradans."
Initiative 75 would have amended
the Colorado Constitution to allow local
governments to regulate oil and gas
development, including the right to
"prohibit, limit or impose
moratoriums."
Initiative 78 would have increased
the state's 500-foot minimum setback to
2,500 feet for any new oil and gas
facility from the "nearest occupied
structure or other specified or locallydesignated area." COGA estimates
Initiative 78 would have put 95 percent
of land in Colorado's top five producing
counties off limits to any new drilling.
Colorado Secretary of State Wayne
Williams explains that a 5 percent
random sample of petition signatures
must project the number of valid
signatures will exceed 110 percent of
the 98,492 voter signatures required to
place an initiative on the ballot. He
reports 26 percent of the Initiative 75
signatures sampled were invalid
(107,232 total signatures submitted),
while 28 percent of the Initiative 78
signatures failed (106,626 submitted).
Initiative backers had 30 days to
appeal the secretary's decision to the

Denver District Court.
Williams also reports the other seven
citizen petitions submitted for the
November ballot were approved,
including Initiative 96, which press
accounts describe as an industry-backed
petition that would require activists
seeking to amend the Colorado
Constitution to obtain the signatures of
at least 2 percent of the registered voters
in each of the state's 35 Senate districts.
The current requirement is 5 percent of
the total number of votes cast statewide
for the office of secretary of state in the
preceding general election. ❒

Area Covered By
Injection Well Limits
Expanded In Kansas
TOPEKA, KS.-After more than a
year of monitoring showed an uptick in
total seismic activity-but also a dip in
felt seismic events-The Kansas
Corporation Commission in early
August issued a second order reducing
saltwater injection rates in parts of
South-Central Kansas.
When the KCC issued its first such
order in March 2015, the commission
capped saltwater injection at individual
wells at 8,000 barrels a day within five
specified areas in Kansas' Harper and

Jody Elliott (left), president of Oxy Oil & Gas-domestic, pauses with TIPRO Chairman
Allen Gilmer, chief executive officer of Drillinginfo, during TIPRO's 2016 summer meeting,
held Aug. 17-19 at the Hyatt Hill Country Resort in San Antonio. During his keynote presentation, Elliott discussed current opportunities and challenges facing the oil and gas
industry, TIPRO reports.

SEPTEMBER 2016 17

American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2016

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