Energy companies lease or buy property from private owners or go through a lease process with the Bureau of Land Management. Wineke, formerly of the Colorado Springs Gazette, said that the encroachment of oil extraction in the Colorado Springs area “came out of the blue.” There was no clear public ownership record of the land and wells in the area that Ultra Petroleum was buying up in recent years to drill. Wineke’s break for his reporting came when a government regulator told him to look in a state database for changes in well designation from agricultural to industrial use. That led Wineke to landowners who might confirm their sale of land to Ultra—a few of whom agreed to be interviewed. In the end, the company announced that they won’t pursue oil and gas extraction near Colorado Springs because test wells showed poor results, and the land has been put up for sale.

While in the East much of the hydraulic fracturing takes place on private land, the federal government’s large land holdings in the West add another layer of complexity for reporting. Some 90 percent of oil and gas extraction in the West uses public lands and the BLM lease process. Here, simply covering those bidding to lease government land for oil drilling can be a challenge. The Coloradoan’s Magill has written extensively about the secrecy involved with the leases. On May 14, for example he wrote:

While the public’s interest in oil and gas development on public land grows with Colorado’s energy boom, industry officials say making public their plans for the land before a lease is awarded gives competitors an unfair edge. The BLM keeps confidential the identity of anyone who wants to drill public lands until two days after the agency’s oil and gas lease sale… According to federal court filings, the BLM in 1995 directed its offices across the country to deny any public request for information about the identity of companies interested in leasing public lands for drilling until after the lease sale. The agency considered that data confidential commercial information exempt from the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

5. Get to know the regulators

Wineke said he quickly learned while covering oil and gas extraction that there is spin and suspicion from all sides—industry, regulators, and opponents. Among the most helpful sources, he has found, are state regulators and well inspectors, who can, for example, walk reporters through well drilling proposals (these can be 40- to 50-page documents filled with technical details.)

Most states have some level of regulation of oil and gas wells. Reporters should get familiar with relevant agency websites—like, for example, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. On the federal level, the EPA has limited oversight of fracking (see this 2012 ProPublica explainer) but has released related air quality rules which will go into effect in 2015. The Bureau of Land Management is taking public comment through August 23 on its first proposed fracking regulations, which include safety standards, improved “integration with existing state and tribal standards, and increases flexibility for oil and gas developers.” This is another story thread for reporters to follow.

6. Use public records as foundations for basic beat stories

The Coloradoan’s Magill, for example, has been culling state records and reports to better understand energy companies and fracking. After digging through the 3,852 violation notices issued to oil and gas companies by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission since 1996, Magill reported in May that the state of Colorado rarely fines oil and gas rule breakers—“just less than 7 percent” of violations have resulted in fines, and nearly half of those fines “have been for $2,000 or less.” A bill to increase such fines died last month in the state legislature, due to “an impasse between the bill’s Democratic sponsors, the governor’s office, and the industry over the inclusion of a mandatory minimum fine.” Magill is also at work on a story based on reported oil spills at drilling sites.

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Joel Campbell is CJR's correspondent for Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. An associate journalism professor at Brigham Young University, he is the past Freedom of Information chairman for the Society of Professional Journalists and was awarded the Honorary Publisher Award by the Utah Press Association for his advocacy work on behalf of journalists in the Utah Legislature. Follow him on Twitter @joelcampbell.