"Safety: Exploded Home Was Built 178 Feet From Oil Well"

"An explosion at a home in Colorado, which killed two people and prompted the state's biggest oil producer to shut down some of its wells, has highlighted the tension between Colorado's flourishing oil business and its rapid housing development.

It's still unclear exactly what caused the April 17 explosion at a home in Firestone, about 35 miles northeast of Denver. But the home was built in 2015, 178 feet from an existing well that was drilled in 1993, and both politicians and activists say it shows the uneasy balance between the building boom and the energy boom.

Regulators at the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission impose a 500-foot setback between new oil and gas wells and existing homes. But they don't control how closely new homes are built to existing oil wells, Director Matt Lepore said yesterday."

Mike Lee and Mike Soraghan report for EnergyWire April 28, 2017.