New environmental regulations in Colorado have chilled investment in the state’s oil and gas fields as companies grapple with how local officials will respond to a law giving them more power to restrict energy production. Colorado now ranks fifth among U.S. states in oil production at about 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from just 90,000 barrels in 2010. That boom, however, has come just as state politics has shifted to the left with an influx of urbanites who tend to oppose fossil-fuel development. The Colorado law is one sign of pushback to the oil boom in the United States, which last year became the world’s leading producer, overtaking Saudi Arabia. New Mexico, the state ranked third in production volume, has also sought to rein in energy development with […]