Evidently the two Taras hit a nerve with their study that focused on the COGCC’s mishandling of public complaints.
Last November Tara Opsal and Tara O’Connor released their study, Energy Crime, Harm, and Problematic State Response in Colorado: A Case of the Fox Guarding the Hen House? which concluded:
By not outright denying (Larrain’s fourth distortion category) citizen claims and, instead, taking reports, engaging in (albeit weak) ‘‘investigations’’, and formally finding that the industry is not responsible for harm allows the COGCC to maintain the appearance of an impartial state agency with regulatory responsibility …
Therefore, to ring in the new year, the COGCC has launched a shiny, new online complaint department. Included are instructions on how to file a complaint, a complaint form, a handy FAQ, “Guidance for tracking a complaint,” and a “Complaint incident search tool.”
I couldn’t get the “Guidance for tracking a complaint” to load. And for the “Complaint incident search tool” you will need your county code. Click here to find your county code. Garfield County is 045.
Got complaints? Just go to the COGCC website, click on “Complaints” in the left hand column and fire away!
Read all about it here:
Gas commission streamlines process to lodge complaints
People with complaints related to oil and gas development can now file them and track the complaint resolution more easily in Colorado, the state says.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has implemented a more streamlined process for handling public complaints, featuring a new complaints webpage.
“The new process makes it easier for the public to file complaints, and makes the agency’s process for addressing, closing and communicating complaints more effective and transparent,” the agency said.
The website can be reached by visiting cogcc.state.co.us and clicking on the complaints link on the left side of the home page.
The link offers guidance on filing a complaint, another link for submitting the complaint online, and answers to common questions such as what to expect in the complaint process, what a complainant’s rights are, and whether complaints can be submitted anonymously. They can, but the commission asks that confidential contact information be provided in case staff members need to follow up with the complainant.
The website also includes information about, and a search tool for, tracking complaints.
Rich Alward, a Grand Junction resident who serves on the oil and gas commission, said recently that he thinks the complaints page should be a useful tool for citizens because it consolidates everything into one location “so that people can go to that and easily navigate to get to their complaint and track it.”
The commission said the new procedure was developed using what’s called a lean process that is designed to increase efficiency, improve customer experience and minimize waste within established systems.
The agency received 185 complaints through the first 11 months of last year, and 201 in all of 2013.
The agency said in a December staff report, “At the present time, the COGCC spends significant resources investigating and responding to public complaints. Many complaints require several field inspections to resolve, and some complaints may require multiple staff members to resolve. Given the staff time invested in each complaint, finding ways to streamline the process and make it more effective is a must” …
From the Styx 
Please tell me the point of reporting complaints if no one responds to them? LOL