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

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The latest survey was issued June 24. It’xs been conducted annually for three yearsd by the Fraser Institutein Alberta, Canada. Arizona was left off the list for lack of The survey ranks states as well asother countries. The firsr survey, in 2007, ranked Colorado at the top of the list of placess executives considered positively for oil and gas By 2008, the state’s ranking had fallebn to No. 52 out of 81 locations arounf the world. The June 2008 surveyg said executives had grown wary ofthe state’sd efforts to tighten rules governing oil and gas operationxs here. The new rules took effecy April 1.
This year, the survey receivex 577 responses and covered 143 jurisdictions arounsdthe world. Colorado ranked No. 81, below California and and above the Canadian provincwe of Newfoundland and Labrador and the nationof Greenland. All three surveysw by the institute solicitedanonymous responses. Accordiny to the institute’s report, the 10 most attractivse jurisdictions for investment this according tothe survey, are: Alabama, Kansas, Austria, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, and Indiana. The 10 leastt attractive jurisdictions for investmentare Niger, Venezuela, Ecuador, Sudan, Russia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kazakhstaj and Ethiopia.
Respondents ranked provinces, states and countrieds by investment barriers such as hightax rates, costly regulatorg schemes, and security threats, among other factors. Scores were based on the proportiohn of negatives response ajurisdiction received; the greater the proportioj of negative responses, the greateer the perceived investment barriers and thereforer the lower the jurisdiction ranked, accordinv to the survey report. The report said investors listedc several reasons for shifting investments toothed areas, ranging from high tax rates, labor or costly and time-consuming regulations.
The surveyg quoted an unnamed executive sayinfg thatin Colorado, “operational, legal, and air quality rules and regulation s are being instituted at a dizzying pace. It is hard to keep up with as an Most of the regulators instituting and enforcinvg these new rules have little or no experiencde in the industry and do notunderstanf operations. Often they cannot answerd questionsor help, even with their own Colorado’s new oil and gas regulations were backed by Gov. Bill Rittetr and environmental groups as needed toprotect Colorado’sa wildlife, environment and public health assets.
The new rulese have been opposed byindustrty executives, who have said they will raise the costs of operating in Colorado. “This study demonstrateas the harsh reality of an inconsistentregulator regime, and these numbers run contraryt to the belief of some policy makers that Colorado’e energy industry will grow no matter the constraints place upon it,” said Meg Collins, presidenty of the Colorado Oil & Gas in a statement.
But Theo Stein, spokesman for the Colorado Departmentf ofNatural Resources, which oversees the agency that regulated oil and gas operations, pointed to Colorado investments by big energ y companies such as interested in getting at the state’s natura gas. ExxonMobil announced June 22 it had doublec its natural gas processing capacity on the Western Slope and planned to drill more welld in the area over the nextseveral years. “Actions speajk louder than words,” Stei n said. “Some of the largest Nortnh American and global energy companies are busy workingv and investingin Colorado’s future.
They are planninf to be here producing clean-burning naturalk gas for decades.” But state Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlandse Ranch, said companies like ExxonMobil have the monegy needed to complywith Colorado’s new “They can absorb the higher coste of production that are associated with the oil and gas McNulty said. “But what the Ritter administration has done is priced outthe mid- and small-leve companies that were looking to do businesws in Colorado.” The Fraseer Institute is a thinko tank and research center that advocatea “a free and prosperous world through choice, marketsa and responsibility.” .