Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said Thursday’s news conference announcing an oil and gas reform bill was the first time Erin Martinez, whose husband and brother were killed in a home explosion in Firestone in 2017, appeared in public since the incident. She appears rarely in public. The story below has been corrected.

Boulder County governments could get what they’ve been wanting for years if a Colorado bill getting introduced in the state legislature in the coming days becomes law: clear local land use authority over oil and gas drilling proposals.

Plans for House Speaker KC Becker, D-Boulder, and Senate Majority Leader Stephen Fenberg, D-Boulder, to introduce the bill in their respective chambers were announced in a Thursday news conference at the state Capitol.

The bill also would reform the mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which oversees the well permitting process, by changing its duty from “fostering” the development of oil and gas to “regulating” it, and by making the commission give more weight to potential threats to public health, safety and the environment when considering new drilling proposals.

Additionally, it would raise the burden on oil and gas companies before they could force pool minerals into drilling projects when owners of the mineral rights decline to take part on their own accord.

Firestone explosion victim speaks out

The announcement of the proposed legislation featured a rare public address from Erin Martinez since an April 2017 home explosion in Firestone killed her husband Mark Martinez and her brother Joey Irwin. The explosion was caused by a leaky flowline attached to a vertical oil and gas well.

“I’m here to support change that will hopefully keep this from ever happening again,” Martinez said at the news conference. “No one should have to experience what my family has gone through the past two years. … I understand no one ever intended this to happen. I have no desire to destroy an industry. However, with great tragedy should also come great change.”

The widow added she is trying to move her surviving family members into their third home in the past two years to quell her son’s fears about living near oil and gas equipment, which were renewed after the discovery of an abandoned well adjacent to their new home.

Renewed Democratic optimism

Boulder County’s state lawmakers have attempted to pass similar legislation regulating oil and gas in the past several years to no avail. But there has been growing Democratic optimism for passing a bill this year since the party gained control of the state House, Senate and governor’s office in November.

Gov. Jared Polis was among the Democrats who vowed to update the state’s oil and gas policies following a January Colorado Supreme Court ruling against a group led by a Boulder teen who pushed for health, safety and environmental impact to be given more weight on the commission’s permitting decisions.

The bill, if passed, would specifically make oil and gas proposals more subject to municipal and county zoning and land use restrictions — including, if a government chooses, greater setbacks of extraction equipment from buildings.

Municipal and county attempts throughout the state to restrict drilling from certain development zones or land use designations have been legally challenged, including a Longmont ballot initiative that banned fracking within the entire city that was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2016.

“One important thing about the local control is it’s optional,” Polis said in a meeting with the Daily Camera. “It’s for communities that want it. … For communities that want to integrate oil and gas into their community and don’t want to provide any additional barriers above the state, they are by no means forced to.”

Forced pooling updates

The bill also gives individual mineral owners greater say in whether their properties can be tapped underground by raising the forced pooling threshold.

Under current policy, if just one mineral owner leases their rights to the party proposing to drill within a given area, the other property owners in the area can have their minerals force pooled into the extraction project without consent.

The bill would raise the limit so a drilling operator must own or have leases for more than 50 percent of the mineral acres in the area being prospected before forced pooling can take place.

Becker said in the meeting that lawmakers’ goals are to balance the interests of the oil and gas industry with public health.

“We don’t promote hurting public health in order to promote the economy. That’s not the trade-off we want,” Becker said to the Camera. “I think we can do both, have a strong economy and have oil and gas that protects public health. Our effort is not to put oil and gas out of business.”

The increasing use of horizontal fracking and drilling, sparked by technological advances in the method’s efficiency and possible underground reach, have necessitated policy updates to keep up with the extraction industry’s expansion, Fenberg said in the meeting, adding he anticipates there will be amendments to the proposed legislation as technology continues evolving.

“This is the most sweeping changes ever in Colorado in oil and gas,” Fenberg said to the Camera. “With that said, there will be future oil and gas bills. We’re going to address the most obvious and biggest conflicts that exist. There is going to be some tinkering. … These statutes haven’t been edited a whole lot since the 1950s.”

Polis suggested the flexibility the bill provides for unique regulations in each community could help heal the divide created among the state’s voters by the controversy over Proposition 112 leading up to November’s election. That initiative, had it not failed at the ballot box, would have required oil and gas operations be situated 2,500 feet from most buildings.

“I think this kind of solution can bring together people that supported Proposition 112 with many of the people who were reasonable but opposed it and wanted a state solution,” Polis told the Camera, “because it recognizes the diversity of our state, like we do in land use in any other area.”

The bill could be introduced to the legislature as early as Friday, Fenberg said.

Widespread support from Boulder County Democrats

Becker said the bill has the support of several other Boulder County legislators, including Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, Rep. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Boulder County, Rep. Edie Hooton, D-Gunbarrel and Sen. Mike Foote, D-Lafayette.

Rep. Lori Saine, R-Firestone, in an email said, “Since this announcement and plan didn’t include Republicans, I doubt they are concerned with our opinion.”

A Colorado GOP spokesman said the party had no comment.

Foote predicted the oil and gas industry would oppose the bill, and that lawsuits could be filed to attempt to keep the bill from becoming law.

“The oil and gas industry will oppose it, they’ll make the same claims they always do, about how they’re going to lose all their jobs, which just isn’t true,” Foote said in an interview. “… The oil and gas industry has proven to be very litigious in the past. It wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to sue on some grounds. If a lawsuit happens, it won’t be because the law isn’t clear, it will be because they just want to stop it.”

Advocacy groups diverge

Environmental groups across the state quickly backed the planned bill following the announcement.

“The lack of modern, common-sense protections from fracking for oil and gas in Colorado has endangered the health of our children and put our first responders in harm’s way,” Colorado Sierra Club Director Jim Alexee stated in a Conservation Colorado news release. “It’s time for change. It’s time for Colorado’s leaders to put the health and safety of Coloradans before the profits of oil and gas companies.”

Industry group Colorado Petroleum Council held off on indicating whether it would support or oppose the proposal until its officials read the actual legislation, but criticized lawmakers behind the proposal for not inviting industry members to the table sooner.

“In my over 15 years of working with the Colorado state government, not having a thorough stakeholder process is unprecedented, especially for a bill that targets one industry but impacts every Coloradan,” Tracee Bentley, director of the council, stated in a news release. “We are deeply disappointed that House and Senate leadership do not appear to value the stakeholder process nor the importance of having all stakeholders at the table on one of the most consequential proposals in Colorado history.”

Colorado Oil and Gas Association President Dan Haley denied that the state’s oil and gas rules haven’t been updated for decades, and also criticized the lawmakers for not having included additional stakeholders before their proposal’s introduction.

“We have the strictest regulations in the country and they have been updated dozens and dozens of times with bipartisan support and the involvement of countless stakeholders,” Haley stated in a news release. “… While we’re offended by this intentional mischaracterization of our industry, we’re committed to the upcoming legislative process because we’re committed to Colorado.”

Colorado Rising, the group that garnered support to put Proposition 112 on the ballot, also withheld judgement until its leaders can review the bill.

“What we will say, however, is that families — Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike — are being affected by this abusive industry and we are on the brink of a climate catastrophe,” Colorado Rising Director Joe Salazar stated in a news release. “We are hoping Colorado will do its part to protect our environment and people.”

Sam Lounsberry: 303-473-1322, slounsberry@prairiemountainmedia.com and twitter.com/samlounz.