January 23, 2009 11:16 PM UTC

Fraccing in the 'Voice of the Western Slope'?

• 3 Comments
• by: ClubTwitty

(What? An organization that is just a tool of the Oil & Gas Industry? Nahhhhh….. – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Club 20 bills itself as the “Voice of the Western Slope” but criticisms of the organization have of late been charging that it’s not what it claims.  In December Gunnison County voted to drop it’s membership, noting that:

The structure of Club 20, allowing governmental members and individual members one vote, fundamentally dilutes the mission of the Western Slope advocacy group, Gunnison County has written in a letter explaining why it is leaving the organization.

“Governments are accountable to their citizens,” according to the letter, which Club 20 received this week. “Individuals who can simply buy their way onto your organization’s board are not.”

The commissioners voted to draft and send the letter during a Dec. 15 special session.

Now San Miguel County has dropped out along with Archuleta and San Juan Counties, the Telluride Daily Planet   is reporting.  

More…

Club 20 maintains that it is

…broader and more diverse than at any time in history, and still growing each year.

Not so charge those leaving the organization, according to the Daily Planet article:

San Miguel County commissioners opted to sit the year out of the organization, which represents a flourish of voices from the Western Slope at the state level on pressing issues from water to mineral developments.

Commissioners said the group no longer represents the interests of progressive counties and is little more than an extension of the feasting oil and gas industry. They plan to send a letter to Club 20 outlining their concerns in the coming weeks.

Other counties have recently dropped out, too: Archuleta, San Juan and Gunnison counties have pulled out, according to commissioners.

Commissioner Art Goodtimes said the Club was “dismissive,” “non collaborative” and that the organization had “failed to represent our viewpoint.”

“They don’t want to open Club 20 up,” Goodtimes said on Thursday. “They’re afraid the progressives are going to take over.”

“You can’t have the voice of the Western Slope be one voice, one industry,” he said.

Originally formed to represent the interests of the 20 counties on Colorado’s Western Slope, in the last few months 20% of those counties have left the organization.  

Reviewing notes from its Energy Subcommittee Club 20 16 boasts of the ‘diverse interests’ that comprise the organization’s policy-making on energy.  

Chair of the subcommitte is Dave Cesark of Delta Petroleum.  He also chairs an ‘advisory panel’ on that committee where, among the other nine members, are representatives of Gunnison Energy Corporation/Oxbow Mining, BP America, the La Plata County Energy Council, Inc., EIS Solutions, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.  

Thus at least six of the panel’s nine members are directly affiliated with the oil and gas industries.  These members effectively shut down any dissenting voice, the Daily Planet article notes:

Joan May, another [San Miguel] county commissioner, said the group failed to even note minority voices in reports outside of the club’s main stance – it became simple majority rule. “We don’t agree on everything – that should be stated,” May said. “If this is supposed to be the voice of the Western Slope, there’s got to be diverse voices. … It’s not the red state that it used to be.”

Perhaps by a ‘diversity of interests’ Club 20 16 means that BOTH oil and gas are represented?