Good evening, Kosserians and readers fair, in Colorado and elsewhere.
Fracking is not my favorite. It’s not that I pretend I can maintain my lifestyle without hydrocarbon fuel; I conserve, but I still use the stuff. No, it’s that this technique exploded into prominence right at the time that Dubya swaggered undeservingly into office. Here in the Denver area, during the evening news (yes, I watch it for the weather and the political ads), and really ever since the election cycle of 2014, we’ve been treated to plenty of frackaganda from industry fronts like CRED and the American Petroleum Institute that insist that “fracking has been done safely for over 60 years.”
OK, inventing a technique 60 years ago & deploying it in certain targeted circumstances to access small shale deposits is one thing.
Pretending fracking has been practiced at near-current rates across its current national footprint? Lies.
And oh boy are the geological consequences starting to look like a nasty return on investment, with relatively small faults in Oklahoma becoming substantially more active in a statistical correlation with fracktivity that is beautiful to the statistician, but less so
for the residents.
About those residents, though. While the global oil market isn’t looking good for fracking operations with relatively high operating costs compared to conventional shallow field drilling in the Middle East, apparently the frackers are still interested in expanding operations in our States, and northeast Colorado is a center of that fracktivity. Weld County has something like 5500 active wells, and at the same time, new homes are being built to meet the tremendous demand from people migrating in; some for Legalization, but many for… well, fracking jobs.
Theoretically these people are OK with living next to their thumping, polluting, high-traffic offices. But the rest of us? Not so much. As the frackers look south from somewhat sparsely populated Weld County to Adams County, well… that’s where I live, along with
452,000 others.
With several fights on record--between communities wanting to ban fracking within their municipal boundaries, and fracking interests—many other Coloradans are starting to push back as well. The Colorado Community Rights Network is sponsoring a
ballot initiative to amend Colorado's constitution to give communities more rights against many outside development interests, but this is primarily a response to fracking. If you’ve read Klein’s This Changes Everything, you recognize this as a
Blockadian initiative.
Where I’m going with this: get involved generally, but specifically, come to a public forum on a fracking moratorium, to be held at the Adams County Government Complex in Brighton, next Tuesday night. Full details below:
Notice of Public Hearing
A public hearing has been set by the Adams County Board of Commissioners to consider the following request:
Hearing regarding oil and gas development in unincorporated Adams County. This meeting will include presentations from staff, key stakeholders, and citizens. Staff will present recommendations regarding potential changes to oil and gas regulations, modifications to the County's Memorandum of Understanding with operators, and additional information gathering and planning that may be required. Staff will also make recommendations regarding whether a temporary moratorium on oil and gas development is necessary at this time.
Board of County Commissioners Hearing Date: January 26, 2016, 6:30 p.m. Location: Adams County Government Center 1st Floor Public Hearing Room 4430 South Adams County Parkway Brighton, CO 80601-8216
This is a public hearing and any interested parties may attend and be heard, subject to the discretion of the chair of the Board of County Commissioners. If you require any special accommodations (e.g., wheelchair accessibility, an interpreter for the hearing impaired, etc.) please contact the Adams County Community and Economic Development Department at 720.523.6800 (or if this is a long distance call, please use the county's toll free telephone number at 1.800.824.7842) prior to the meeting date.
For further information regarding this hearing, please contact the Department of Community and Economic Development, 4430 S Adams County Parkway, Brighton, CO 80601, 720.523.6800.
www.co.adams.co.us/...
See you there? I’ll be wearing my PIPELINE FIGHTER shirt.