American Petroleum Institute CO

05/26/2026

In a new op-ed for Colorado Politics, API Colorado Executive Director Carly West reflects on the 2026 session, ongoing regulatory activity, and the importance of affordability, reliability, and implementation as Colorado continues shaping its energy future:

By Carly West By many accounts, Colorado’s 2026 legislative session was unusually quiet on oil-and-natural-gas policy. There was no sweeping new oil-and-natural-gas package. No major new production restrictions. After years of contentious energy debates dominating the Capitol, the relative quiet o...

04/20/2026

Regulatory uncertainty drives up costs, delays projects, and ultimately hits Colorado families and businesses. Certainty in the permitting process is key to delivering affordable, reliable energy.

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Everyone in Washington right now is talking about affordability. It’s the buzzword in every campaign promise and political speech, but for many Coloradans it’s simply a new label for a very old problem. Families across Colorado don’t need a government report to tell them what bites them ...

04/16/2026

03/31/2026

"It’s hard to overstate how critical access to affordable, reliable energy is. Colorado’s oil and natural gas industry plays a major role in ensuring families and businesses have the energy they need."

Watch Carly West on Rocky Mountain PBS Colorado Inside Out here:

Insiders Patty Calhoun, Alton Dillard, Ean Thomas Tafoya and Carly West are led by host Kyle Dyer.

03/02/2026

After the 7-6 vote to kill the bill, Carly West, executive director of American Petroleum Institute Colorado, said that while her organization is always willing to try to solve a problem, she didn’t believe there was a problem that was identified here.

“Our operators are really committed to transparency, to compliance, to emissions reduction. The question with 1121 is whether it improved transparency,” West said. “What it required was for businesses to duplicate information, some of it in a really challenging way.”

The bill would have required companies reporting emissions to state or federal regulators to post those emissions on their websites as well.

02/10/2026

"West expressed confusion about why the current reporting process to CDPHE isn’t enough, as the department makes these records available to anyone in the public upon request. And, she noted, Colorado recently was one of just two states to receive an A-list designation from CDP, a global nonprofit operating an independent environmental disclosure system, for its data transparency in environmental reporting."

The bill would require firms to put a link on their corporate home pages leading to emissions reports that they already must submit.

01/16/2026

Demand for energy in Colorado continues to grow, and oil and natural gas remain central to meeting that demand. Population growth, electrification, advanced manufacturing and emerging technologies are all increasing energy needs, while expectations around affordability and reliability continue to rise. How Colorado navigates those pressures will help shape the state’s economic competitiveness and day-to-day costs for families and businesses alike.

By Carly West Colorado is at an inflection point on energy. As the state enters its 150th year, decisions about how energy is produced, delivered and regulated are becoming more immediate — and more consequential — for communities across the state. Demand for energy in Colorado continues to grow...

01/12/2026

12/19/2025

“While we didn't agree with every component of the final program, there were a number of decisions that really kept the rule grounded in statute and avoided unnecessarily broad or burdensome requirements,” said Carly West, the executive director of the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Colorado chapter.

API and other oil and gas groups remain concerned about permit fees. Still, they supported the commission’s decision to exclude a “public interest review,” in which environmental groups had wanted to evaluate the potential community impacts from proposed projects.

Despite that concern, water quality advocates said the program marks an important step forward.

The new ‘dredge-and-fill’ rules address a gap by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sackett decision two years ago, which drastically shrunk the number of waterways eligible for federal protections.

11/24/2025

Thank you to the Colorado Farm Bureau for hosting us at their Annual Meeting last week. We appreciated the opportunity to join leaders from across the agricultural community and talk about the shared work that keeps Colorado’s rural communities strong.

Agriculture and energy have long worked side-by-side in our state, and we value the partnership that supports families, small businesses, and the communities that feed and fuel Colorado.