Crestone contractors work on oil/gas well near Aspen Ridge Prep School, Erie, CO
From an Article by Rebecca Dickson, Daily Camera, Boulder, CO, April 7, 2018
Fracking on Boulder County open space could begin within the year. If you’re reading this article, you’re likely aware of this threat because the Camera has been covering it. But many Boulder County residents do not follow local news closely and thus do not know that after our county spent over $500 million to protect land from development, the oil and gas industry still has the legal right to frack it. Several oil and gas companies now want to frack Boulder County open space. And they will — unless enough of us act to stop them.
Crestone Peak Resources, a way too pretty name for a company that contributes heavily to climate change while polluting our water and air, has submitted a comprehensive drilling plan to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC). In it, they lay out their plan to drill on Boulder County Open Space. If you agree that it’s outrageous for an extraction company to tear up and poison land that we citizens paid buckets of money to protect, make comments about this lousy plan before April 15 at http://bit.ly/Crestone3Comments.
Another oil and gas company, 8 North, a subsidiary of Extraction Oil and Gas, also wants to drill our public lands. The COGCC will hold hearings at the end of April about 8 North’s plan. You can sign up to speak at these hearings or you can just watch the proceedings. The schedule hasn’t been set yet, so watch the COGCC’s website for more information on this.
So how can Crestone and 8 North get away with drilling on protected land? While you and I were busy with our daily routines, paid oil and gas lobbyists were cozying up to Colorado state legislators — they’ve been doing this for decades. As a result, many pro-oil and gas laws were passed, among them preemptive state laws that favor the fossil fuel industry. What this means is that oil and gas laws at the state level can nix those at the local level.
Those laws are why it doesn’t matter that cities in Boulder County have voted to ban fracking. Those laws are why the county commissioners could impose only a moratorium on fracking, not an outright ban. This is why the county commissioners cannot impose another moratorium on fracking without getting our county sued for millions of dollars. The oil and gas industry is rich and powerful and for them, profits always come first. They get what they want. They have for over a hundred years.
With the laws on the oil and gas industry’s side, we might lose this fight. The Sierra Club and other groups are acting legally to resist the fracking, but fights like this are most often won or lost in the public arena. If many of us speak up, we can win, like we did at Rocky Flats. If not enough of us speak up, we’ll certainly lose.
If you care about fracking on Boulder County public lands, there is a lot you can do. Make a comment on Crestone’s drilling plan before April 15. Tell your friends and co-workers that fracking could happen within the year on our open space. Share this article and recent articles in the Camera on fracking by Harv Teitelbaum, Dana Bove, and Mike Foote. Sign up to speak at the 8 North hearings that will take place at the end of April. Tell your kids about the fracking on public land, tell some young people — they appear to be our most determined activists these days.
And of course, educate yourself on the issues. Check out a recent study by University of Colorado researchers Lisa McKenzie et al. that suggests a correlation between fracking and childhood leukemia. Consider Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea’s studies on the significant amounts of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, that leak into the atmosphere during fracking operations. Learn how often fracking ends up in low-income families’ backyards by looking at articles by Eric Huber and Dara Illowsky. Fracking damages us in multiple ways while the oil and gas industry amasses huge profits.
Several decades ago, Boulder County recognized the importance of open space and invested half a billion dollars to protect it. Now we need to defend this land from another threat. If enough of us stand up to the oil and gas industry, we can protect what we value so much in our county.
>>> Rebecca Dickson is chair of the Sierra Club-Indian Peaks Group. She lives in Boulder.
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