Colorado regulator lets Big Three dodge $1.3bn bonds
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- ECMC could have required up to $1.3 bn in financial collateral from the Big Three under its 2019 powers, but instead allowed the companies to provide only a fraction of that amount.
- Chevron, Oxy and Civitas own more than 14,600 inactive oil and gas sites in Colorado, many of which overlap with over 6,000 open spills.
- SB-181 (2019) mandated bonding of $140,000 per well, yet before the law Colorado held only $132 m in bonds, averaging about $3,000 per well.
- 2024 regulators reported that contractors for the three companies falsified environmental paperwork at hundreds of sites, inflating reported water and soil pollution levels.
- Christiaan van Woudenberg used state data to map daily chemical spills in Weld County, noting more than 11 spills per week in 2018 and linking them to health issues for residents.
- Colorado decommissioning costs could exceed $8 bn, while a national analysis estimates over 2 million wells will need cleanup costing $150 bn.
Why it matters: Taxpayers and nearby residents bear the environmental and health risks while the regulator’s lax bond enforcement lets Chevron, Oxy and Civitas keep cash, deepening Colorado’s projected $8 bn decommissioning liability and undermining the intended protection of SB‑181 and threatening further contamination of soil and groundwater across the state.
