A daily digest of The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of energy companies, commodity markets and the forces that shape them.

Send us tips, suggestions and complaints: EnergyJournal@wsj.com

COLORADO MEASURE WOULD MAKE MOST OF STATE OFF LIMITS TO DRILLERS

Colorado voters in November will decide whether to ban oil-and-gas drilling near their homes and other spaces. The measure could make most of the U.S.’s seventh largest oil-producing state off limits to energy firms, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Colorado already requires oil-and-gas wells to be located at least 500 feet from buildings and 350 feet from recreation areas like playgrounds. The ballot initiative would increase those setbacks to 2,500 feet, or nearly a half mile. That would ban drilling on 85% of the state’s non-federal land, according to an analysis by state regulators.

“This is a ban. It’s to drive you out of the state,” said Chip Rimer, a senior vice president at Noble Energy Inc., at an industry conference in Denver this month where companies sought to underscore the measure’s possible economic impacts.

Activists have campaigned for years for such limitations in Colorado, where wells commonly abut densely populated areas. Recent deadly explosions also have brought increased attention to the safety of oil-and-gas operations.

If the measure passes, it would reduce state and local tax revenue by $201 million to $258 million in the first year, and result in 33,500 to 43,000 lost jobs, according to a study by the REMI Partnership, a public policy research group.

Meanwhile, oil prices continued to climb to highs not seen since early July, boosted by a larger-than-expected decline in U.S. petroleum stockpiles.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 0.36% to $77.42 a barrel on London’s Intercontinental Exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading up 0.20% at $69.65 a barrel.

IN AMERICA’S HOTTEST DRILLING SPOT, GAS IS GOING UP IN SMOKE

In America’s busiest oil field, roughly $1 million worth of natural gas is burned away every day, going to waste, writes the WSJ’s Rebecca Elliott.

Shale drillers in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico say they have no way to move the gas—a byproduct of oil drilling—to market because there aren’t enough natural-gas pipelines. Instead, they are getting rid of the excess gas by setting it on fire, a practice known as flaring.

Flaring is poised to worsen in coming years as companies rush in to pump more oil from the region. While oil fetches about $69 a barrel, natural gas currently sells for less than $3 a million British thermal units and has become a largely unwanted side effect of the region’s oil boom.

SOFTBANK PULLS PLUG ON PLANS TO INVEST IN CHINESE TESLA RIVAL

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., which was in talks earlier this year to take a stake in Chinese electric-vehicle maker NIO Inc., has decided not to invest in the Shanghai-based startup.

SoftBank had considered buying about $200 million worth of shares in NIO’s initial public offering, The Wall Street Journal reported in April. It couldn’t be learned why the Japanese tech giant walked away from the potential investment.

The investment group has been collecting stakes in companies with driverless car technologies and has invested in General Motors Co.’s driverless car unit. SoftBank also owns stakes in Uber Technologies Inc.

“ As fires rage up and down the state of California, costing our taxpayers billions of dollars and threatening our families’ health—the need for California to move to 100% clean, renewable energy could not be more urgent ”

CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS VOTE TO MANDATE CARBON-FREE ELECTRICITY GENERATION

California passed legislation Tuesday that would make it the first large state to mandate completely carbon-free electricity generation, with a target of 2045, write Erin Ailworth and Alejandro Lazo.

Though the bill sets the most ambitious carbon-free goals in the nation, it doesn’t specify how California would get there.

To achieve 100% carbon-free power, Gov. Jerry Brown suggested California needs to increase its ability to store power from unpredictable sources like wind and solar and put millions more electric cars on its roads, because most of the state’s carbon emissions come from the transportation sector.

BIG NUMBER: 60 BILLION

U.S. government data due Thursday are likely to show stockpiles of natural gas last week rose by levels slightly above the average for this time of year. The U.S. Energy Information Administration is expected to report storage levels rose by 60 billion cubic feet of gas during the week ended Aug. 24.