Colorado’s One Step Closer to Limiting Oil and Gas Drilling

A Colorado battle over drilling is heating up as backers of a measure to block oil and gas development in much of the state met a key deadline to get their proposal on the November ballot.

Initiative 97 would increase the buffer zone between occupied structures and oil and gas wells, effectively blocking drilling in more than half the state, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. If enacted, it could curb output in one of the country’s most prolific shale plays, the Denver-Julesburg Basin, which helped drive Colorado oil production to a record-high 447,000 ...