December 25, 2015 09:23 PM UTC

Scrooge Learned His Lesson - Will Colorado Oil and Gas Industry?

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• by: PKolbenschlag

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

The response by the bevy of Colorado oil and gas astroturf groups to a recent spate of ballot measures filed with the Colorado Secretary of State to restrict how development occurs in certain jurisdictions has been the predictable Chicken Little hyperbole spiced with a little bit of Christmas.

According to former Denver Post editor cum oil and gas spox Dan Haley the measures are “the ghosts of Christmas Past” that would “…take the state backward.”

Peter Moore, former Denver Post columnist cum oil and gas spox, said:

“All of these extreme proposals fall into the naughty category, which will prevent access to our own energy that will cripple family budgets and jeopardize our economy,”

Meanwhile one-time Denver Post journalist cum oil and gas spox Karen Crummy said:

“These measures are so radical they would kill jobs, ignore established laws, devastate Colorado’s economy…”

But it is the reportage by veteran Denver Business Journal reporter Cathy Proctor (and carried by 9News) that should cause Coloradans pause. At least for those who are paying attention.

If approved by voters, the proposed measures would make it extremely difficult for energy companies to find locations to drill new oil and gas wells in Colorado.

This declarative statement, not a quote from an oil and gas lobby communication director or fracking flunkey, is notable for several reasons. First it is simply incorrect. Second it is a revealing tell.

Most of the measures are setbacks, from sensitive lands and occupied communities. One measure would allow local jurisdictions to decide what industrial uses are appropriate in their towns. Another measure would ban fracking but not on federal lands (millions of acres of which are either already leased or available for oil and gas leasing).

A fracking ban that doesn’t apply to federal or Indian lands, limited local control, and setbacks all still mean that hundreds of thousands of acres of lands already leased and millions of acres available for leasing are unlikely to be impacted by the measures should they make the ballot and pass.

Thus it is simply nonsense to suggest that operators would suddenly run out of new places to put a drill rig should setbacks, or ‘local control,’ or even a limited ‘fracking ban’ be enacted by We the People of Colorado. There is really no other way to put it.

It is pretty clear that the powers that be, bipartisan even, are troubled about giving citizens the reins of government when it comes to the oil and gas industry. Natural Gas Intelligence-Shale Daily reports:

Industry and state government officials have been nervous about grassroots efforts to place measures on the statewide ballot that undercut or directly conflict with the growing state regulations for oil and gas that are enforced by the Colorado Oil/Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC). In 2014, Gov. John Hickenlooper set up a task force to look at local oil/gas control issues that were spawning a ballot measure war (see Shale Daily, Sept. 9, 2014).

Hickenlooper pieced together a political compromise to avoid a statewide ballot measure fight that fall, naming a local elected county commissioner and an industry senior executive as co-chairs of the effort.

But in order for these measures to make it “extremely difficult” to find new places to drill, jurisdictions across the state—from Moffat and Mesa and Rio Blanco and Garfield Counties on the Western Slope to Weld County on the Plains—would have to first take the position that the activity were not allowed and then the federal government, which administers the minerals on public lands, would have to acquiesce despite the measures specifically not applying to those lands.

Oil and gas development is an industrial impactful activity that is dangerous and involves both toxic inputs and noxious emissions.  Spills occur. Accidents happen.  Heavy truck traffic is a given, as are flaring, fumes, and—with some probability—failures: of casings, equipment, humans.

One only need read about the battle at Battlement Mesa, or statements from county commissioners in Boulder, La Plata, Pitkin, and elsewhere to understand that there are—in fact—plenty of salt-of-the-earth Coloradans and their duly elected leaders that agree local communities need more say.

Still the industry continues to portray the effort to bring balance to this activity as out of step with Colorado. Vital for Colorado spox Peter Moore says of the measures that they: “represent the most extreme factions of the environmental movement.”

Again this is nonsense. Offensive even in its arrogant dismissiveness. But it is telling. Of course citizens ought to have a more robust means to regulate this activity in our midst. Petitioning our government, including that “closest to the people,” is the first line of action. Rather than dismissed, diminished and denigrated, it ought to be encouraged.

So why is the industry–if it brings such benefit to the state, a benefit that only “extremists” and “out of state” interests fail to see–so fearful of allowing common-sense Coloradans the right to determine our own fate, affect our own policy, be represented by our own governments?

Misinformation, whether from lazy reportage or devious design, does democracy a disservice. And while it may seem a worthwhile tactic it remains to be seen if it is a viable strategy. After the failure of the Governor’s Task Force to adequately address underlying issues proponents this time are unlikely to back down. Instead Coloradans are ready to take matters into our own hands.

In Charles Dickens classic Yuletide tale “A Christmas Carol” the spirits that visit the protagonist are not villains.

Rather the ghosts come as the clock strikes to teach Mr. Scrooge that he needs to change his ways.

Whatever the political repercussions of these measures on the 2016 ballot, just as with the unpleasant future Scrooge faces, the situation is very much of the industry and its enablers own making.

Reaching for Christmas analogies while repeating the same tired rhetoric should send the journalists and spokespeople carrying the industry’s message back to bed. Because the clock is about to toll again.