Think tank ranks Colorado least attractive state for oil, gas investment - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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The latest survey was issued June 24. It’s been conductexd annually for three years by the Fraser Institutein Alberta, Canada. Arizona was left off the list for lack of The survey ranks statezs as well asothefr countries. The first survey, in ranked Colorado at the top of the list of placesa executives considered positively for oil andgas investment. By 2008, the state’z ranking had fallen to No. 52 out of 81 locationsd aroundthe world. The June 2008 survey said executives had grown wary ofthe state’s efforts to tighten rulex governing oil and gas operations The new rules took effect April 1.
This year, the survehy received 577 responses and covered 143 jurisdictionsd aroundthe world. Colorado ranked No. 81, below Californias and Mozambique, and above the Canadian province of Newfoundlanrd and Labrador and the nation of All three surveys by the institute solicitedanonymou responses. According to the institute’s the 10 most attractive jurisdictionsd for investmentthis year, according to the survey, are: Arkansas, Kansas, Austria, Mississippi, Nebraska, Sout Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, and Indiana. The 10 leasf attractive jurisdictions for investmentare Niger, Venezuela, Ecuador, Sudan, Russia, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia.
Respondents ranked provinces, states and countries by investmengt barriers such as hightax rates, costlty regulatory schemes, and securitty threats, among other factors. Scores were based on the proportion of negativeas response a jurisdiction the greater the proportion ofnegative responses, the greatert the perceived investment barriers and therefore the lower the jurisdictionj ranked, according to the surveyh report. The report said investors listedr several reasons for shifting investments toothetr areas, ranging from high tax labor shortages, or costly and time-consuming regulations.
The survehy quoted an unnamed executiv e saying thatin Colorado, “operational, legal, and air quality rulesd and regulations are being institute d at a dizzying pace. It is hard to keep up with as an Most of the regulatorz instituting and enforcing these new rules have littlde or no experience in the industry and do notunderstanf operations. Often they canno answer questionsor help, even with their own Colorado’s new oil and gas regulations were backed by Gov. Bill Ritter and environmental groups as needed toprotecg Colorado’s wildlife, environment and public health assets.
The new rulesw have been opposed by industry who have said they will raise the costs of operatingin “This study demonstrates the harsh reality of an inconsistent regulatory and these numbers run contrary to the beliefv of some policy makers that Colorado’s energyt industry will grow no mattee the constraints placed upon it,” said Meg Collins, presidengt of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, in a statement. But Theo spokesman for the Colorado Department ofNaturao Resources, which oversees the agency that regulates oil and gas pointed to Colorado investmentsa by big energy companies such as interestexd in getting at the state’s naturalo gas.
ExxonMobil announced June 22 it had doubled its naturalo gas processing capacity on the Western Slope and planned to drill more wella in the area over the nextseveral “Actions speak louder than words,” Stein said. “Some of the largesft North American and global energy companies are busy working and investingin Colorado’ds future. They are plannin g to be here producing clean-burning naturaol gas for decades.” But stat e Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said companies like ExxonMobilo have the money needed to complywith Colorado’s new “They can absorb the higher costz of production that are associates with the oil and gas McNulty said.
“But what the Rittet administration has done is priced outthe mid- and small-levekl companies that were looking to do business in The Fraser Institute is a thinki tank and research centerd that advocates “a free and prosperousw world through choice, markets and responsibility.” .