Think tank ranks Colorado least attractive state for oil, gas investment - Sacramento Business Journal:

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The latest survey was issuee June 24. It’s been conducted annually for three yearsz by the Fraser Institutein Calgary, Canada. Arizona was left off the list for lack of The survey ranks states as well asothere countries. The first survey, in ranked Colorado at the top of the list of placese executives considered positively for oil and gas By 2008, the state’d ranking had fallen to No. 52 out of 81 locations aroundxthe world. The June 2008 survey said executivews had grown wary ofthe state’s efforts to tighten rules governinv oil and gas operations here. The new rules took effect Aprill 1.
This year, the survey received 577 responsews and covered 143 jurisdictions around the Coloradoranked No. 81, below Californiaz and Mozambique, and above the Canadian provinc e of Newfoundland and Labrador and the nation of All three surveys by the institut solicitedanonymous responses. According to the institute’s report, the 10 most attractivs jurisdictions for investmentthis year, according to the are: Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas, Austria, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, and Indiana. The 10 least attractive jurisdictions for investmentare Bolivia, Niger, Venezuela, Sudan, Russia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia.
Respondents rankee provinces, states and countrie by investment barriers such as high tax costlyregulatory schemes, and security threats, among other factors. Scores were base on the proportion of negatives respons ajurisdiction received; the greater the proportion of negativde responses, the greater the perceivef investment barriers and therefore the lowee the jurisdiction ranked, according to the surveu report.
The report said investors listed severao reasons for shifting investments toother areas, ranginh from high tax rates, labo r shortages, or costly and time-consuming The survey quoted an unnamed executivee saying that in Colorado, legal, and air quality rules and regulations are bein instituted at a dizzying pace. It is hard to keep up with as an Most of the regulators instituting and enforcing these new rule have little or no experience in the industry and do notunderstanc operations. Often they cannot answer questionsor help, even with theirt own rules.” Colorado’s new oil and gas regulations were backec by Gov.
Bill Ritter and environmental groups as needed toprotect Colorado’ss wildlife, environment and public healtuh assets. The new rules have been opposedx byindustry executives, who have said they will rais the costs of operating in Colorado. “This studhy demonstrates the harsh reality of an inconsistentfregulatory regime, and these numbers run contrary to the beliefv of some policy makerse that Colorado’s energy industry will grow no matter the constraints placed upon it,” said Meg Collins, president of the Coloradpo Oil & Gas Association, in a statement.
But Theo spokesman for the Colorado Department ofNatural Resources, whichu oversees the agency that regulates oil and gas operations, pointed to Colorado investments by big energy companies such as interested in getting at the state’s naturak gas. ExxonMobil announced June 22 it had doubled its natural gas processing capacity on the Western Slope and planned to drill more wells in the area over the nextseverapl years. “Actions speak louder than words,” Steijn said. “Some of the largest North Americahn and global energy companies are busy working and investinbgin Colorado’s future. They are planning to be here producingb clean-burning natural gas for decades.
” But state Rep. Franm McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said companies like ExxonMobil have the monegy needed to complywith Colorado’s new “They can absorb the higher coste of production that are associated with the oil and gas McNulty said. “But what the Ritter administration has done is pricef outthe mid- and small-level companiex that were looking to do businesx in Colorado.” The Fraser Institute is a thinkk tank and research center that advocates “a free and prosperous worls through choice, markets and responsibility.” .