The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission last week launched a remodeled website at http://cogcc.state.co.us/.

The new site is intended to provide a more contemporary look, a more intuitive experience and to streamline the organization of large amounts of data and content available to the public.

The site also improves search capabilities while maintaining or enhancing all the content and functions of the previous site.

“We recognize the high public interest in the COGCC, its work and the data it maintains,” said COGCC director Matt Lepore. “Our agency has always been among the most transparent in the country in providing access to volumes of information about the regulation of the oil and gas industry in Colorado; with this redesigned website we’ve taken another important step in making public information available to all interested parties.”

The site is one of several recent steps meant to make interaction with the COGCC easier. The agency has streamlined the complaint process, aggregated spill data and converted its water quality data to a downloadable format. Work continues on additional projects that will make more data more easily accessed and analyzed by the public.

The website is part of an ongoing focus at COGCC to strengthen its regulation of oil and gas development in Colorado.

Since 2011, the COGCC under the administration of Gov. John Hickenlooper has crafted rules to increase setbacks, reduce nuisance impacts, protect ground water, cut emissions, disclose hydraulic fracturing chemicals, increase spill reporting, significantly elevate penalties for operators violating commission rules and toughen requirements for operating in floodplains.

The commission has also significantly expanded oversight staff, intensified collaboration with local governments, sponsored ongoing studies to increase understanding of impacts to air and water and adopted several formal policies to address health and safety issues brought about by new technologies and increased energy development in Colorado.