UCCS Students Study Oil, Gas Future In El Paso County

A class at University of Colorado Colorado Springs is not looking at theory or the past, but the region’s future.

The focus of this semester’s master’s-level business class investigated the impacts of oil and gas drilling in the region.

“It definitely had a feeling of being relevant to what the local area is going through right now,” said Todd Keller, a master’s student in the class.

The group of 25 students spent 16 weeks looking at past environmental failures tied to fracking and calculating projected growth rates for the local economy.

“It is our hope that policy makers do look at this documentation, as a resource, without having to spend the fortunes necessary to replicate this study,” said Fred Crowley, an economics professor at UCCS.

Fracking has been widely debated in the region since it was determined that El Paso County and Colorado Springs lie in the Niobrara oil shale deposit region.

“The challenge for us is, how do we capture those jobs and incomes, plus the jobs and incomes, plus the jobs and incomes of the related service industries that don’t exist here yet?” asked Crowley.

The group’s findings revealed there isn’t much of a support industry right now for oil and gas drilling. That means of the four jobs created for every projected drilling job, some may be nonlocal.

Still, projections made by the group show the addition of oil and gas jobs bringing in tax revenue of about $9 million per year.

Part of the environmental study found problems in some parts of the country with the installation of pipes that allowed methane to leak into the water supply. The group cited issues in Garfield County’s Divide Creek and Pavillion, Wyo. Experts said the biggest role local and state government can play moving forward is ensuring safety measures are met by companies.

“It is their responsibility to make sure these things are actually drilled and sealed properly to make sure there is no contamination,” said Crowley.

The class also put put together a comprehensive report that includes a look at the business feasibility of oil and gas drilling in the region. Crowley said it will be online next week.