In her five years leading the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, Tisha Schuller says she focused on building bridges between the industry and communities where it operates. And just as she helped negotiate new regulations on the industry, she led lawsuits in several cities that voted to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Schuller steps down as president and CEO of the industry trade group at the end of this month. She spoke with Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner to reflect on her tenure.
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Tisha Schuller on what she has focused on at COGA
"We've really come a long way as an industry in five years in how we engage with regulators and how we engage with communities... When I started, COGA focused exclusively on state legislative and regulatory matters. Now, we actually have a staff of 12, three of whom just work in communities full time because this isn't about just addressing a conflict and getting through it. This is about being where our operations are for decades, and that means building rapport."
Tisha Schuller on the future of the anti-fracking movement in Colorado
"I think the perspective of banning fracking is something that we haven't seen in communities since Loveland defeated a measure, and I don't expect that we'll see it again. I think that was a concept in the evolution of the engagement around oil and gas... I do not think that we will see efforts to ban fracking that will have meaningful support or momentum behind them. I do think that that is a concept that has passed."
On what she sees as a hypocrisy by those who want to ban fracking
"Communities that use oil and gas can't ban it and say someone else has to produce it for them... We are consumers demanding a product and demanding it at a very affordable price. We know how sensitive consumers are to changes in their heating bill and their gasoline bill... I think a better paradigm is we are totally interdependent on oil and gas, and vilifying it is simply silly and a very lazy way of trying to address climate change."
