ECMC waited months to announce manipulated environmental tests [Video]

WELD COUNTY, Colo. — Transparency and accountability.

The state’s oil and gas commission director announced last week that two environmental consulting firms for oil and gas companies submitted manipulated data for 350 oil and gas sites.

When Colorado’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) Director Julie Murphy told the rest of the commission, she said she wanted to be transparent.

The state has known about the manipulated data since July. The public announcement came Nov. 26.

“I want to be clear that we want to be transparent and that we need to balance that transparency with unnecessarily alarming communication, as well as our need to continue this investigation,” Murphy told the Commission. “This is a very serious matter, and we determined that urgent notifications were not warranted because there was no new or increased risk, based on the falsified data.”

She detailed …