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ABOUT THE SERIES

Colorado is on the front end of what may prove the greatest natural resource boom in its history, with more than 33,000 oil and gas wells pumping and tens of thousands more on the drawing board. It is a multi-billion dollar energy bonanza with potentially enormous social and environmental consequences for the state.

In Beyond the Boom, four days of special reports beginning Dec. 10, the Rocky Mountain News will examine whether Colorado is ready to deal with the phenomenon that could shape its future for decades to come.

Day 1

CHAPTER 1 - State at energy epicenter

Stakes high as billions head Colorado's way

Rolling west along Interstate 70 out of Glenwood Springs, down valley to Rifle and on to Parachute, the gas drilling rigs illuminate the night sky like exotic carnival rides — here, there and way up there in the distance, two ridges over.

CHAPTER 2 - Spending Spree

Millions fly out as fast as they flow into fund

A little-known state fund has doled out about $400 million to cities and counties during the past five years from taxes and revenue collected largely from natural gas exploration.

The billion-dollar question: What if?

What would Colorado do with an extra billion dollars — or two billion?

Property tax credit wipes out much of state's take from oil and gas industry

Energy companies enjoy a substantial property tax exemption in Colorado. In New Mexico and Wyoming, they don't.

'Permanent' fund repeatedly tapped for passing needs

In the early 1980s when legislators needed money to run the state, they borrowed millions of dollars in mining and energy tax money deposited in a newly formed trust fund. The money was never repaid.

CHAPTER 3 - Life amid the wells

All’s not well as drilling takes over bigger chunks of Weld County land

Mark Nygren steers his tractor down rows of green, leafy sugar beets on his Weld County farm. The blades of his harvester turn over the brown earth to reveal the white roots, healthy and huge this year.

Day 2

CHAPTER 4 - Staggering Impacts

Drilling operations reshape landscape

Atop a hulking castle of shale and splendor, within the hunter's paradise that is the Roan Plateau, the country's craving for energy is leaving a gash.

Stepping more lightly on the land

Rapid improvements in directional drilling have spelled the end of an era where the only way to obtain natural gas was sinking a well straight down — again and again across the land. Today, in more and more cases, wells are drilled from outside important wildlife habitat or scenic areas, then steered underneath them to draw out the fuel below.

CHAPTER 5 - Five key concerns

5 key environmental concerns

Regulators, environmentalists, sportsmen and citizens have cited numerous worries about the oil and gas industry’s impacts to the environment, both realized and potential. Here’s an overview of five major categories of concern:

CHAPTER 6 - Methane and money

La Plata straddles oft-explosive divide

A methane gas explosion rocked a mountain outside Durango in June 1932, spewing rocks and causing landslides.

Utes have become a major player

Along a ridge south of Soda Springs on the Southern Ute Reservation, a coal- bed fire burns beneath the surface, hot enough to melt the soles of tennis shoes and to register over 1,000 degrees on high-tech thermometers.

Day 3

CHAPTER 7 - Struggling with the strain

Energy rush creates haves and have-nots

A rising tide may lift all boats, except perhaps those anchored by salary structures unrelated to the boom. Western Slope municipalities including Rifle, Silt and Parachute are struggling to retain hospital workers, school bus drivers and maintenance workers.

CHAPTER 8 - Scenes from the boom

At the confluence of clashing cultures

Workers flooding northwest Colorado to participate in the state's unprecedented natural gas boom are taking shelter where they can find it, and many are ending up in the convivial, home-on-wheels environment of RV parks.

CHAPTER 9 - East vs. West

Three's a crowd in two-sided Garfield politics

Garfield County has two distinct faces. The east, criss-crossed by spectacular forested canyons spilling into the showy tourist magnet of Glenwood Springs, draws an adventurous crowd in search of rafting, restaurants, vapor caves and mineral baths.

CHAPTER 10 - Wyoming Forewarmings

Pinedale provides cautionary tale for Colorado communities

This town's many makeovers - from a cattle center to a scenic retreat to an oil and gas boomtown - are becoming a familiar story in the Rocky Mountain West.

Day 4

CHAPTER 11 - Sharing the wealth

All hands are out for energy windfall

Colorado's energy boom has grabbed the attention of state lawmakers. Big time.

CHAPTER 12 - How we got here

State living with energy tax decisions made 30 years ago

During the waning days of the 1977 state legislature, the nine members of the Senate Finance Committee took two votes on a severance tax on oil and gas that set the course for Colorado to this day.

CHAPTER 13 - The way foreward

Nine voices, nine views

The question is simple: Is Colorado best positioned to take advantage of what may be the greatest energy boom in its history? The evidence, presented in four days of special reports by the Rocky Mountain News, says no. Even so, most involved predict that consensus for reforming state policies to meet the gas rush's unparalleled challenges and opportunities will not come easy. Gov. Bill Ritter and eight other leaders share their distinctive viewpoints.

VIDEOS

Northwest Colorado's majestic Roan Plateau is a flashpoint over where to drill for natural gas.

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

SLIDE SHOWS

Matt McClain's photos document what may be Colorado's greatest natural resource boom.

MAPS AND GRAPHICS

Graphics show how the state is spending its gas wealth and the challenges posed by the energy rush.