Guilty As Charged

Here’s how to ween ourselves off of foreign oil (or not):

A last-minute torrent of drilling permits filed by energy companies under Colorado’s old oil and gas rules has been followed by a trickle of filings since new rules took effect.

Barely one application a day, or 34 in total, came in to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in April, after the rules’ implementation on nonfederal land April 1.

The near-halt in applications comes just a month after companies submitted a record 1,470 applications in March in a rush to beat the new, stricter rules. Permits applied for before April 1 will be reviewed under the old rather than new rules.

The previous one-month record for permit applications had been 784.

State officials say the new rules strike a proper balance between oil and gas development and protection of health, the environment and wildlife. But the industry argues they are costly and burdensome, and it worries about how long it may take for permits to be approved under the new rules.

Anyone else sitting on this much wealth wouldn’t hesitate — and in the history of the world, hasn’t hesitated, ever, once — to dig it up or drill it out. We, on the other hand, are morons.