The Colorado Oil & Gas Association held its 33^rd Annual Energy Summit in Denver on Tuesday that brought together leaders from across the industry and other key economic sectors to discuss the future of energy in Colorado.

Throughout the day, these leaders noted how the industry in Colorado is operating at the highest standards for responsibly producing energy and is showing the way forward for the rest of the country.

Dan Haley, the CEO and President of COGA, opened the Energy Summit by noting the improvements in technology deployed by oil and natural gas companies has helped the industry meet stronger environmental and safety regulations in the state and said:

“We’re producing energy in Colorado cleaner and safer than anywhere else in the world.”

The summit then hosted several panels including “Investing in the New Energy Space” that focused on “Environmental Social & Governance” investing. James Reddinger, CEO of Stabilis Solutions, said that energy must be cleaner, but also needs to be affordable and reliable for customers:

“We think there is three parts to that energy triangle that needs to be talked about. The first is clearly environmentally and sustainability. Cleaner is better. Greener is better. Being environmentally responsible is better.

“…What we also see is that there are two other things that are needed to make energy a practical and realistic solution. One is that it’s got to be cost effective. Whether you’re producing a good, heating a house, whatever the application is, it’s not done at a cost that’s not sustainable to the user or society at the time. The third part of that is reliability and predictability and we look across the country and we look at all places, Texas this spring, if you look at California every year with the lack of grid reliability at the hottest times of the year, if you look at New England where they don’t have enough access to gas for heating. We’ve got a big issue in this country where we are very much pushing the ‘E’ but we’re forgetting the reliability and predictability part.”

In that same panel, Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Oilfield Services noted his optimism to accomplish all environmental and affordability goals in the future:

“I’m quite optimistic on the future availability of energy, the future of people rising out of poverty, the future of continuing to clean our environment, and to grow opportunities for those least fortunate in the world, whether they’re people in dire energy poverty or people growing up in a troubled neighborhood in Denver that didn’t get an education. [Our company] is driven by the passion to grow human opportunity.”

In the panel, “Mitigating GHGs – Challenges, Opportunities and a Realistic Path Forward,” Ryan Edwards with Occidental Petroleum Company highlighted the company’s carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS technologies), while Matt Fry with the Great Plains Institute noted how his group and others are working to develop sound public policy to support CCUS and other technologies needed to lower greenhouse gas emissions:

“The state carbon capture work group, which currently has sixteen states in it, along with some industry and NGOs. And what we’ve done is develop a framework of policies that states can look at as sort of a menu that they can utilize going forward when developing CCUS projects. We’ve published four white papers and a number of guidance documents to help people move forward.”

Another panel, “Creating a Culture of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Strategies for Success,” featuring Tasha Jones of LV Consulting, Carrie Goddard of Chevron, and Camille Romero of DCP Midstream, focused on how creating an inclusive and supportive workplace can lead to stronger returns and improved employee performance:

Carrie Goddard, Integration and Performance Manager @ChevronColorado, says that leaders showing support for their employees can have a 70 percent positive impact on how those employees feel. @ColoradoOilGas #tes #COGA2021 https://t.co/DmPWMEH5Ii

— EID Mountain States (@EIDMtnStates) August 24, 2021

The final panel, “Combatting Climate Change Together,” highlighted all the ways that business in Colorado are working to lower their carbon emissions and Ted Leighty, CEO of the Colorado Homebuilders Association, noted that energy is key for every sector and applauded the oil and natural gas sector:

“Your industry (energy) powers these other industries. [Farmers] can’t bring food to your table without fueling their machines to harvest crops, we can’t sell very many homes if you can’t heat and cool them, and [auto dealers] aren’t going to sell many cars if they won’t run. So, thank you all for what you do to power these industries.”