(Promoted by Colorado Pols)
Energy in Depth mouthpiece (twitterer, primarily it seems) Randy Hildreth was serving up some Texas-sized bullshit in his recent de rigueur hit-piece.
The short of it is local communities paying to defend their own ordinances and going bankrupt is because groups like the Western Energy Alliance or some such similar are suing them.
Get it? The oil and gas industry is suing local governments over ordinances those governments enact, then is blaming the local community members and city councils.
Furthermore, all this is happening in the context of the state just issuing draft rules for siting some certain very limited number of oil and gas facilities.
Or rather the state has issued draft regulations for maybe talking with local governments about siting facilities.
Predictably, like flies on dung, the oil and gas folk–led by former Denver Post editorial page editor Dan Haley–are decrying the idea of having to interact with local governments as draconian over-regulation bound to ruin some 200,000 jobs and plunge the state into eternal darkness. To paraphrase, but only slightly.
Meanwhile the good people actually living among the flaming wells, fracking sites, traffic, noise, fumes, air pollution, dust, spills, mishaps, and it-really-was-no-big-deal-everything-is-fine reality of the gaspatch have pointed out the regulations fall far short of what is actually needed.
Leslie Robinson, president of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance in Garfield County, said in a news release, “We’re getting thrown under the bus here. We saw this process as an opportunity to address the problem of big oil and gas facilities being sited close to homes and communities. Instead, the (oil and gas) Commission is proposing to basically enshrine companies’ right to keep doing exactly that.”
It is also the case that the regulation thus fall far short of what is needed to stop such as the Community Citizens Rights Network and Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund from finding fertile ground in which to organize.
Now, it could be that the strategy being proposed by these groups is not the best. We can likely anticipate some sharp discussion on that matter as the ballot calendar looms.
Local communities have to consider local costs. At least many will undoubtedly make that decision. So it could also be that some strategies are better for some places than for others.
And not all Colorado faces drilling battles over land currently under state jurisdiction. Other tools and tactics are probably more appropriate on federal public lands for instance.
But the bunk being dumped on Colorado citizens by the like of Energy in Depth is really just a big old steaming pile of nonsense. And like a Lone Star State cow-pie stinking up your doorstep, the poop they are peddling is an affront to Colorado sensibilities.
Simply put, we don’t need that shit here.
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Good diary, P. The Repubs just love to talk about local control – not so much when it comes to actually letting it happen in practice. I am going to repeat myself regarding Sonnenberg's potential jump into the US Senate primary: he has proven to be a good soldier for the oily boy and like all Donald Trump look-alikes, they place their bets on both sides of the fence.
Michael Bennet has proven to be friendly to their causes; those bases are covered. If the Republican candidate manages to win they don't need a Colorado-style Louie Ghomert with a gun fetish to babysit. From an O&G perspective, Sonnenberg is the perfect candidate for them.
Thanks Michael,
I look forward to meeting sometime.
-P
Nice piece, Pdawg…
I was talking to a friend who attended some oily hearing in Battlement Mesa about these recommendations. Once again…they turn things upside down …make all the rules you want then exempt yourself by changing definitions and layering on qualifiers.
Thanks, Hick…
Good diary, Pdog. But I think we need to move beyond local control. As long as each community is struggling to define its own boundaries with oil and gas industries,the industry can keep manipulating rules for its own benefit, with complicity of state government. We need absolutists, even to advocate for the dreaded "ban on fracking" bugaboo, if only to force negotiation with more moderate groups.
I understand that there was an environmental strategy summit recently. I've been busy with moving and the new job, but look forward to getting updates. Perhaps you could write a diary on it?
Meanwhile, our supposedly dysfunctional Republican-dominated US House just gave a big wet kiss to the oil and gas industry, by moving to revoke the oil export ban.
If it makes it through the Senate, the White House has threatened to veto it.
I don't disagree. Still there is no single magic sword that slays the dragon. "Fracking Ban" doesn't do it, it doesn't doesn't even fully define the "left flank" for purposes of negotiation. Community and citizen rights for healthy environment is an interesting approach, but its a ways from realization IMO. I think that makes more sense than a ban on any particular practice. Meanwhile places like Battlement Mesa are about to get drilled now.
Local communities should do what they can where they can and they should keep pushing parameters and not let slick oil and gas lobbyists levy veiled threats. Other folks should try to redefine what is possible. They are not mutually exclusive strategies.
Agreed. It's always taken a spectrum of strategies, from street protests to leveraging market forces and lobbying, to get anything substantive accomplished.
Big cash is already pouring into the "crush the citizens" coffers, according to (yet another Denver Post former employee) Karen Crummy, PR shill behind some or another industry-funded astroturf happily-named fracking interest lobby.
It does make sense as Crummy notes, that Texans would want to put their thumb on Colorado politics and make damn sure that local folks can't have more say in activity in their midst, after all such oversight and small "D" democracy might impede the flow of cash to Sugarland, and slow the kickback ('flowback') that groups with names like 'Protect Colorado' so enjoy.
I am hearing some disturbing stories on NPR and CPR. One story about fracking and another about "Benghazi" came off as very one-sided. I note they are now getting underwriting from ANGA.
The NPR story today is "FRACKING DOESN'T HARM GROUNDWATER….! (…all the copious amounts of spilling does…)”
I guess I missed the story on the John Hopkins study showing, yet again, birth issue (premature births in this case) near fracking sites.
I guess it's a good think our Governor DoLittle, Hasn’t been fill his tippy cup from those real-world spills??
Remember, it's not the fracking that'll kill ya', it's that other not-fracking bad stuff. No use crying over spilled carcinogens, huh?
What needs to change, I think, is that thus far this has been rural folks v. oily boys fight. More urban areas have not yet been affected, so suburbanites don't think they have a dog in this fight. That will change as they suck the rural areas dry. The O&G folks will start moving into more urban areas. Anti-frackers need to get a jump on this and start talking to neighborhoods in places like Adams County and the far reaches of Aurora. They need to know that if they don't pay attention, wells will be bored on their kids' playgrounds next.