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

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The latest survey was issued June 24. It’s been conducted annually for three years by the Fraser Institutwin Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Arizona was left off the list for lack of The survey ranks states as well asothed countries. The first survey, in 2007, ranked Colorado at the top of the list of placese executives considered positively for oil andgas investment. By the state’s ranking had fallenn to No. 52 out of 81 locationz around the world. The June 2008 surveyu said executives had grown wary ofthe state’xs efforts to tighten rules governing oil and gas operations The new rules took effect April 1.
This the survey received 577 response and covered 143 jurisdictions around the Coloradoranked No. 81, below California and and above the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labradod and the nationof Greenland. All three surveyd by the institute solicitedanonymous responses. According to the institute’sa report, the 10 most attractives jurisdictions for investment this according tothe are: Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas, Austria, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, and The 10 least attractiv e jurisdictions for investment are Niger, Venezuela, Ecuador, Sudan, Russia, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia.
Respondents ranked provinces, state and countries by investmentr barriers such as hightax rates, costlyu regulatory schemes, and security threats, among otherr factors. Scores were based on the proportiohn of negatives response ajurisdiction received; the greate r the proportion of negative responses, the greater the perceive investment barriers and therefore the lowert the jurisdiction ranked, according to the survey The report said investors listed several reasons for shifting investments to other areas, ranginhg from high tax rates, labor shortages, or costlgy and time-consuming regulations.
The survey quotedr an unnamed executive saying thatin Colorado, legal, and air qualith rules and regulations are beiny instituted at a dizzying pace. It is hard to keep up with as an Most of the regulators instituting and enforcing these new rulex have little or no experience in the industrty and do notunderstand operations. Often they cannot answer questions or even with theirown rules.” Colorado’s new oil and gas regulatione were backed by Gov.
Bill Rittere and environmental groups as needed toprotect Colorado’se wildlife, environment and public health The new rules have been opposedx by industry executives, who have said they will raise the cost of operating in Colorado. “Thies study demonstrates the harsh realit of an inconsistentregulatory regime, and these numbers run contrar y to the belief of some policy makere that Colorado’s energy industry will grow no mattedr the constraints placed upon it,” said Meg president of the Coloradoo Oil & Gas Association, in a statement.
But Theo spokesman for the Colorado Department ofNatural Resources, which oversees the agency that regulates oil and gas pointed to Colorado investments by big energ y companies such as interested in getting at the state’s natural gas. ExxonMobil announced June 22 it had doubler its natural gas processing capacity on the Western Slopre and planned to drill more wellw in the area over the nextseveraol years. “Actions speak louder than words,” Stein said. “Somes of the largest North American and global energuy companies are busy working and investinhgin Colorado’s future. They are planning to be here producing clean-burning natural gas for decades.
” But state Rep. Fran k McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said companiew like ExxonMobil have the money needed to complywith Colorado’s new “They can absorb the highere costs of production that are associated with the oil and gas McNulty said. “But what the Ritter administration has done is pricedx outthe mid- and small-leve companies that were looking to do business in The Fraser Institute is a think tank and research center that advocated “a free and prosperous world through choice, markets and .