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August 22, 2013 07:50 AM UTC

"Frackers" Near Rep. Polis' Farm Hit With $26,000 Fine

  • 13 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Smoke from Sundance Energy's drilling operations. Photo courtesy Rep. Jared Polis.
Smoke from Sundance Energy’s drilling operations. Photo courtesy Rep. Jared Polis.

The Boulder Daily Camera's Charlie Brennan reports, the drilling company that set up operations directly across the street from Rep. Jared Polis' rural Weld County farm faces a (relatively) stiff fine:

State regulators have proposed $26,000 in penalties against the company that launched a drilling and extraction operation directly across the road from a Weld County property owned by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, and used as his weekend getaway.

Additionally, the order Friday from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission states Sundance Energy must meet with the holding company through which Polis owns his Weld County property to discuss its future plans in detail.

"It's an illegal well that's located too close, and a rig that is too high, and it kind of vindicates our initial charge of complete carelessness with regard to following state regs," Polis said Wednesday. "I don't think they should be able to frack the well they drilled there illegally, but at least the $26,000 fine is a start, and I hope the company takes the offset regulations seriously in the future."

Sundance Energy declined to comment Wednesday.

Polis was hounded by conservatives after filing suit against the drillers, then dropping that suit to pursue a claim before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. A second line of criticism from conservatives and energy industry proponents was opened by noting that Polis has, among his plethora of investments, some money invested in energy companies too.

This recommended $26,000 fine for Sundance Energy drilling too close to Polis' property certainly vindicates him on the first point. As he said all along, the well was not in compliance. This story says a lot about the plight of landowners all over Colorado now threatened by drilling near their homes, as "fracking" pushes drilling into areas that haven't seen it before. The law, which may itself not be adequate to protect the public, doesn't always get followed. Surface landowners suffer losses from drilling near their properties, from peace and privacy to health and safety. Rep. Polis had the resources and wherewithal to fight back, but not everyone confronted by drilling near their home does. And even though the drillers will pay a fine, the well is still drilled. None of this is new, but here is a very good example of what happens.

As for the second point, about Polis having energy investments? Note: he doesn't invest in Sundance Energy.

But even if he did, is there anybody out there who wants companies they invest in to be breaking the law?

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13 thoughts on ““Frackers” Near Rep. Polis’ Farm Hit With $26,000 Fine”

    1. If I were Congressman Polis, I would set up a non profit organization that provides pro bono legal services and advice to Colorado landowners that have been fucked over by fracking operations.  The group could also collect research, data and information on the environmental and health damage this practice has done in the state, and provide that information to various media outlets and elected representatives as a counter to all of that nonsense bullshit put out by O&G. 

      Just an idea.  Who am I to tell someone how to spend their money anyway, I'm just a horseshit GOP front group…

       

  2. Bring on the rightie apologists who will say that this got special attention because of Polis's status and ability to use his position as a platform (probably so and a good thing for every property owner in similar straights who doesn't have such a high profile voice) while ignoring the fact that the operation was clearly out of compliance. Too bad the fine isn't a lot higher.  

      1. Here you go:

        http://coloradopeakpolitics.com/2013/07/29/hypocrite-of-the-highest-order-polis-makes-profit-on-fracking-sues-neighbor-for-doing-same/

        Last week Congressman Jared Polis sued his neighbor to stop them from drilling on their own property, because it “caused a loss of enjoyment” on his million dollar vacation home in Weld County. The suit has since been withdrawn to give Polis and his lawyers more time to gather evidence.

        In the meantime it’s worth exploring the evidence that Polis is a hypocrite of the highest order — suing to stop his neighbor from profiting from the very same industry in which Polis profits with personal investments.

        Based on Polis’s 2011 financial disclosure form (he still hasn’t filed his 2012 form), Polis has between $1 million and $5 million invested in the oil and gas industry.

        1. Thats almost as hypocritical as congratulating yourself for the passage Amycare and Obamacare, which you did yesterday.

          Its kind of ironic that you'd bring irony into the discussion.

           

  3. I met with an organic farmer yesterday who is trying to protect his land, which has been entered into Mesa Land Trust in order to protect it. There is a red flag at the edge of his property where a well is proposed. The company, a Norwegion company with a "going concern" note in its financial statement, asked if they could lease his mineral rights. When he said no, he was told by the company representative that they would just take them anyway. This guy has water rights going back to 1883, which have been given to the city of Grand Junction as part of a "special agreement." To add insult to injury, the city is going to sell some of that water to the Norwegian company for their operations. The directional drilling that the company will be doing is going under the creek that is the headwaters for the Grand Junction water supply.

    I'm not sure how we get more balance for landowners and resources other than oil and gas, but we've got to try.

  5. Way to paper over Polis's hypocrisy. If he doesn't like fracking, he should divest from energy altogether. Fracking is the future of energy production. How many SUVs does multimillionaire Polis own? Don't they burn gasoline?

    2. Oh, n3b, please read more. (Offline preferably.) You'll gain much needed insight into words' meanings and their usefulness when employed correctly. Your ignorance of the word hyprocisy is truly embarrassing.  Of course, you're merely accepting Colorado Peak's twisting of the facts and then picking up on their use of "hypocrite" as a clever–you thought–cudgle.

      If the objection by Polis, a rich person who obviously likes having money, was brought just to keep other people who like money from making a bunch of it, that would indeed be hyprocricy. But Peak lied. Truth is, he sued because the fucking well was illegal, illegal in a way that screwed up his enjoyment of his own property. Were the well legal, Polis is smart enough to have just accepted its existence and probably would have congratulated his neighbors for pulling in the dough.

      So Polis has investments in "the industry". So what? Would it be hypocritical if you owned stock in Verizon but, for some reason, got pissed at AT&T and sued AT&T? Same industry. I shop regularly at Albertsons; would I be hyprocrite if, for some reason, I got pissed at Safeway? Is it hyprocrical to be loyal to Colorado Pols but to shun Colorado Peak because it stinks like a bag of skunk piss? Same industry.

      No, Peak merely whistled and you began slobbering, trained puppy that you are.

      Looking forward to your next comment–after you've overcome your distressingly Pavlovian reactions to Peak's dishonest and not-so-subtle persuasion.

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