On the September 12 broadcast of News 8 This Morning, Grand Junction ABC affiliate KJCT reported that Mesa State College “will be conducting” a study assessing the impact that Western Slope energy development is “having on health, education, transportation, housing, and the environment.” News 8 anchor Nicolle Sulcer then misleadingly reported that "[t]he study will be partially funded by the energy industry." In fact, according to a September 12 article in The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, numerous oil and gas companies active on Colorado's Western Slope provided “most” of the money for the already-completed impacts analysis.

After reporting that "[t]he local economy is on fire," and that “all signs point to the energy industry,” Sulcer asked, “But what impact is all this growth having on health, education, transportation, housing, and the environment?” She went on to report that “Mesa State College will be conducting a major new five-county study that will examine the industry's impact on all of these areas.” Later, after the News 8 report quoted an unidentified man as saying, “We don't want just another study. We want a study that leads to clear next steps and, hopefully, good outcomes,” Sulcer concluded with the misleading statement that "[t]he study will be partially funded by the energy industry."

In contrast to News 8's reporting, the Daily Sentinel reported that “ExxonMobil, Chevron, EnCana, Williams Production, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips contributed 'most' of the $35,000 ... to conduct the study,” which the El Pomar Foundation commissioned. According to the article, headlined “Industry-funded study proposes ways to stave off effects of growth”:

First there were new big-box stores in Grand Junction. Next there was new interest in Steamboat Springs' “luxury lifestyle,” and the oil and gas industry was the “last guy in the door.”

In chronological order, those are the things that have fueled northwest Colorado's wild growth over the last decade, leaving local governments, industry and academics to wonder how to ease growth's effect on western Coloradans, John Redifer, of Mesa State College's Natural Resource and Land Use Policy Institute, said Tuesday.

The solution, Redifer said in a study commissioned by the Colorado Springs-based El Pomar Foundation, is to create a public-private partnership between local governments and industry to come up with a way to find money to fix roads, find affordable housing and to solve the region's other growth-related challenges.

“The region cannot depend on state or federal government outside of funding to fix their problems,” El Pomar Northwest Regional Council member Gregg Rippy said. “We should know that we're going to have to fix our problems.”

ExxonMobil, Chevron, EnCana, Williams Production, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips contributed “most” of the $35,000 for Redifer to conduct the study, El Pomar spokeswoman Josie Burke said.

The Daily Sentinel further reported, “Oil and gas development is one of the biggest factors in the region's growth, Redifer said, but so is a retail boom, which happened before natural gas drilling took off, and an explosion in the number of people buying luxurious second homes in Routt County.”

From the September 12 broadcast of KJCT's News 8 This Morning:

SULCER: The local economy is on fire. And all signs point to the energy industry. But what impact is all this growth having on health, education, transportation, housing, and the environment? Mesa State College will be conducting a major new five-county study that will examine the industry's impact on all of these areas. Those involved with the study say they have clear goals this study should help them attain.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN [video clip]: We don't want just another study. We want a study that leads to clear next steps and, hopefully, good outcomes.

SULCER: And representatives say the goal of the study is to maximize the positive aspects of growth while minimizing the downsides. The study will be partially funded by the energy industry.