CO State Agency Shovels Money To Oil & Gas Operators, Guts Cleanup Fines; Agency Director Leaves 1 Day Before Ruling
After a nearly two-year inquiry, Colorado’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) approved deals allowing firms owned by its largest oil and gas companies to avoid the majority of assessed penalties for falsified data submitted by their contractors. Collectively, the oil firms stand to pay roughly $2 million, less than 15 percent of the original millions in proposed penalties. ECMC’s lone dissenting commissioner called the fraudulent data a “deep violation of the public trust.”
Christiaan van Woudenberg, an Erie, Colorado, resident turned anti-fracking activist who works with community groups like Erie Protectors, likewise criticized the agreements.
“If our only defense right now is the law and the regulations, and the ECMC is giving these oil and gas operators a pass on the enforcement of those rules and regulations — that is the true injustice here,” van Woudenberg said.
The steeply discounted penalty deals were negotiated under the oversight of ECMC director Julie Murphy. Just a day before the June 24 hearing finalizing those agreements, the state announced Murphy would be stepping down, just weeks after an investigation by DeSmog and the Guardian found the agency gave the same oil companies a $1 billion break on required financial assurance for cleaning up thousands of defunct oil and gas sites. The investigation revealed that cleanup at the current pace would take decades to finish.
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https://www.desmog.com/2026/07/07/colorado-ecmc-cut-11-million-penalties-oil-firms-fake-cleanup-data-chevron-civitas-oxy/