While Spotify was tallying your top songs this year, our friends at EcoCarto were busy crunching the numbers for Colorado’s oil & gas industry: 651 new wells drilled, 10.5 billion gallons of water consumed, and a record 2,110 oil spills statewide.

Oil & Gas Wrapped breaks down the real environmental cost of fossil fuel extraction in our state by the numbers, and shows how the trends have evolved over the last 10 years (spoiler alert: things have generally gotten worse for Colorado neighborhoods and the environment).

This year’s report reveals troubling trends: just four operators were responsible for 78% of all spills, modern wells now use 4x more water than a decade ago, and the April 6th Bishop blowout was Colorado’s worst oil spill in history.

But here’s a question worth asking: can finding more spills actually be a good thing? Since 2021, new ECMC regulations have required oil & gas operators to meet more stringent reporting criteria, including conducting environmental investigations during well closures. As operators plug old wells, they’re discovering and reporting decades of previously hidden contamination. Is transparency finally catching up with legacy pollution?

Knowledge is power. Please share this report with friends, family, and your elected officials. Follow the organizations fighting for safer communities. Sign the open letter at Safe & Healthy Colorado.

The data is clear. The question is: what will we do about it?

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View the full Oil & Gas Wrapped 2025: https://ecocarto.com/wrapped