DNR briefs ECMC on staff changes, geothermal bill and EPA Class 6 review
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Summary
Jennifer Walker Graff of DNR updated the commission on internal staffing moves, legislative priorities including an underground injection bill and a geothermal development bill that would require voluntary geothermal data collection by ECMC, and EPA Region 8’s publication advancing Colorado's Class 6 primacy application into a public comment period with an April 23 virtual hearing.
At the March 25 Energy and Carbon Management Commission meeting, Jennifer Walker Graff, assistant director for energy innovation at the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, provided a staff and legislative briefing.
Walker Graff said Richard Fields has been named DNR’s chief operating officer and that Daphne Gervais has moved to Colorado Parks and Wildlife; Sarah Hamming will serve as legislative affairs director for the rest of the session. On budgeting, she said the ECMC FY2026–27 budget is moving through the legislature and the long bill is expected to be introduced in the Colorado House the following week.
On legislation, Walker Graff identified HB261112 as a DNR priority to give the state authority to regulate all underground injection control (UIC) well classes; the bill has passed the House Energy and Finance Committee and awaits a hearing in House Appropriations. She also noted SB26142 (Development of Thermal Energy Resources) would encourage geothermal development and requires ECMC to develop a voluntary geothermal data-collection program and collaborate on recommendations to the General Assembly. The transcript contains a garbled deadline for those recommendations; the commission asked staff to clarify the statutory timing in the record.
Walker Graff also said EPA Region 8 has published a proposed rule and docket on Colorado’s Class 6 primacy application, triggering a 45‑day federal public comment period through May 4 and an EPA‑led virtual public hearing on April 23 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Mountain Time. "Any stakeholder may participate in this process by submitting written comments at any time during this comment window or orally at an EPA led virtual public hearing on April 23," she said.
Commissioners thanked DNR for the update and expressed particular interest in the EPA action and the geothermal provisions affecting ECMC.
