Will Colorado deal the shale oil boom a blow?

Colorado's flourishing oil industry could be dealt a powerful blow on Tuesday by voters worried about the safety and environmental side effects of the shale boom. Proposition 112 calls for banning oil and gas companies from drilling any wells within 2,500 feet of occupied buildings, water sources and other "vulnerable" areas. If approved, the ballot question would eliminate future drilling locations in a chunk of the surging Denver-Julesburg, or DJ, basin in Colorado, one of the nation's largest oil-producing states. Much of the Colorado land held by oil companies like Anadarko Petroleum (APC) and Noble Energy (NBL) would suddenly be off limits to new drilling. "The long-term impact of Proposition 112 on Colorado's oil and gas industry would be dramatic," Artem Abramov, head of shale research at Rystad Energy, wrote in a recent report...MORE