Category Archives: News

Support HB 1275 – in Committee this Thursday

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State Representative Joann Ginal (D-Fort Collins)

Please Support HB 13—1275  A Report on the Health Impacts of Oil and Gas Operations Near the Front Range. This bill would require Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to commission a study of epidemiological data to identify possible health impacts related to oil and gas activity.

This bill will be heard on Thursday, ~10:00 am, April 11, 2011 at the State Capitol, 200 E. Colfax, Denver, CO.

 

 

 

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Support Longmont – Support House Bill 1269

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Please come to the State Capitol
Thursday, March 28, at 10:30 AM.
We need you to help pass legislation
that will make a difference!

We need to show strong support for House Bill 1269.  You may speak if you wish, but you don’t have to. We can speak just as loudly and strongly by filling the hearing room with Coloradans, and especially people from Longmont, who are dissatisfied with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s existing mandate and want change. Continue reading →

Representative Ginal’s Bill Assesses the Health Impacts of Oil & Gas Operations

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Representative Joann Ginal

State Representative Joann Ginal (HD52),  who is a biologist and holds a Ph.D. in endocrinology, has introduced HB13-1275, which set up studies of oil and gas operations – air and water emissions, and their  impacts on human health, for specified counties along the Front Range.  Rep Ginal’s bill requires that the state form a committee of legislators, along with health and bioscience experts, who would:

  • Assign epidemiological health studies to a scientific group, priority given to experience with oil and gas impacts on health and association with university  (seems to best describe the Colorado School of Public Health )
  • Collect epidemiological data for Larimer, Weld, Boulder and Arapahoe Counties, with health surveys that would assess health impacts  (collecting control group data,  compare baseline (pre operations) to post operations, and hopefully compare areas of heavy operations to comparable Colorado populations that do no yet have oil and gas operations underway)
  • Determine if health impacts are found which are disruptive to normal home and business activities or cause extreme discomfort or health problems. If so, the oversight committee would be able to immediately call for cease and desist of such emissions at well sites where so documented
  • Publish all collected data, including online reports
  • Report the results by March 2014 Continue reading →

Rally at the Governor’s mansion – tell Hickenlooper not to Frack Colorado for Tar Sands Oil

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On Tuesday, March 26th at noon, people across Colorado are coming together for the “Don’t Frack Colorado for Tar Sands Oil” action in front of the Governor’s Mansion! RSVP here to join us.

Why? Gov. Hickenlooper is traveling to Canada March 26-29, leading a delegation of 20 including representatives from the Canadian Consulate Office, on an “energy-focused mission”, with a stop by the tar sands. (Read more here.)

Unfortunately, that likely means that the Governor plans to promote the use of fracked gases from Colorado to develop tar sands oil. Huge amounts of natural gas and fresh water are used to superheat the tar sands in order to get the oil out. And natural gas condensate is used to viscosify the sludgy tar sands oil so that it will flow in pipelines. As we all know, this is an extremely dirty and carbon-intensive form of energy.

Is this the kind of energy development you hoped our Governor would pursue? Didn’t think so. Please join us next Tuesday to send Gov. Hickenlooper off with a loud and clear message! Colorado wants a clean energy future! Don’t Frack Colorado for Tar Sands Oil!!

Many of you joined us for the #ForwardOnClimate event last month asking President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline and take serious action to solve the climate crisis.

Like last month, let’s wear black to form a human oil pipeline. (Wear your black No KXL or #ForwardOnClimate shirt, if you got one!) There may even be another human oil spill! 😉

Don’t Frack Colorado for Tar Sands Oil Action

When: Tuesday, March 26th, 12noon
Where: In front of the Governor’s Mansion, 400 East 8th Avenue, Denver
RSVP Here and spread the word with our Facebook event page.

An Evening with Randy Udall – Halliburton & the Mancos Sea: Shales R Us–Or Are They?

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CRES and Golden Earth Days are pleased to present one of the nation’s leading activists in promoting energy sustainability. Randy Udall is co-founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil-USA, and former director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency.

Americans are using 2 million barrels less each day than we were in 2007. The irony is that even as we’ve become less hooked on crude, we’ve become more addicted to drilling. Ten percent of the Lower 48 has been leased by oil companies. That’s more acreage than we plant in corn and wheat. In short, shale plays have given us a staggering amount of new energy. Udall asserts that “Simultaneously, they’ve hijacked our energy future, chained us to a drilling rig, and thrown away the key.”

Thursday, March 21, 7 p.m.
Presentation Followed by a Reception
Jefferson Unitarian Church, 14350 W. 32nd Ave., Golden, CO

Admission FREE.

Please register here, just so we know how much food to prepare.

Coalition Acts to Protect City of Longmont’s Ban on Dangerous Hydraulic Fracturing

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LONGMONT, CO – Today, a coalition of community, public health, consumer and environmental organizations, including OurLongmont, Food & Water Watch, the Sierra Club,  and Earthworks filed a motion in the Weld County District Court to intervene in the Colorado Oil and Gas Association’s lawsuit that seeks to invalidate Longmont’s ban of the oil and gas practice known as “fracking”. This ban was instituted by the citizens of Longmont in an amendment to the City Charter, Article XVI , the Longmont Public Health, Safety and Wellness Act.

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Diverse Coalition of Coloradans Across State Speak Out Against Fracking

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Protect Our Colorado coalition and What the Frack?! Arapahoe deliver over 14,000 signatures to Governor’s office and state legislature calling for a moratorium on fracking

Denver, Colo.— Today Protect Our Colorado, a coalition of more than 30 business, solar, farming, faith, consumer, environmental, grassroots and social justice organizations across the state, and What the Frack?! Arapahoe will deliver more than 14,000 petitions to the Governor’s office and leaders in the state legislature from Coloradans opposed to the dangerous drilling technique.  The organizations are calling upon the Governor and state legislature to implement an immediate moratorium on fracking. Continue reading →

Pro-fracking petition in Ft. Collins with fake signatures embarrasses Colorado Gas & Oil Association

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By John Upton  coloradoan.com

The oil and gas industry’s amateur attempt to mislead Fort Collins lawmakers.

Outlawing fracking in Fort Collins makes local business owners sad. At least, that’s what liars working for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association tried to tell local lawmakers. Continue reading →

Local residents turn out to protest Colorado BLM’s controversial ‘lease first, plan later’ approach

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http://checksandbalancesproject.org/2013/02/14/local-residents-turn-out-to-protest-colorado-blms-controversial-lease-first-plan-later-approach/

Wednesday, South Park and the North Fork Valley residents and business owners turned out to protest BLM’s controversial ‘lease first, plan later’ approach to oil and gas drilling at the Colorado BLM Resource Advisory Council (RAC) meetings. The public’s testimony focused on the need for BLM to finish critical planning and studies before they lease lands, in order to protect water supplies, local economies and wildlife.

COALITION ACTS TO DEFEND LONGMONT ORDINANCE

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BOULDER, CO- Today Earthworks and Sierra Club filed a motion to intervene in the State of Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s lawsuit to invalidate a Longmont City Ordinance that would protect residents from the pollution and associated health  threats of oil and gas development.
The challenged Ordinance, passed in July 2012, prohibits oil and gas surface activities from occurring near homes, schools and hospitals, and places mandatory setbacks from these and other facilities, as well as from waterways and parks. The Ordinance also requires disclosure to emergency responders of hazardous chemicals transported through the City and consultation with local wildlife experts before operations begin.
“Recent research shows that oil and gas development risks the health of those living nearby,” said Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project Director Bruce Baizel. He continued, “Longmont’s Ordinance is necessary to protect the public’s health because it fills a regulatory void. It is ironic that COGCC is suing to overturn the Ordinance because the void it fills was left by the COGCC’s failure to set and enforce adequate rules governing oil and gas development.”
Over the past decade Colorado has experienced a historic boom in oil and gas drilling. Colorado currently has more than 50,000 active oil and gas wells covering much of the state’s landscape. Across Colorado’s northern plains, oil and gas companies are increasingly operating not only in sparsely populated areas, but also in towns and suburbs.
This growing trend of drilling near homes and schools prompted the City of Longmont, located 37 miles north of Denver and on the western edge of Colorado’s most productive oil and gas field, to update its land use rules to prohibit certain surface activities in residential areas.
The new rules immediately came under legal attack by the State of Colorado calling into question the City’s authority to protect its own citizens from the adverse effects of oil and gas development.
“We believe this is the first time a State has initiated a lawsuit against a local government regarding oil and gas regulation,” said Eric Huber, Senior Managing Attorney for the
Sierra Club Environmental Law Program. “This action by the State government only proves that decision-making by our representatives is not always done with people in mind. If Longmont wants to prevent certain dirty and dangerous practices from energy companies from happening, then that should be their right.”
“It is imperative that Colorado communities have the ability to protect their citizens from the many harmful impacts from oil and gas mining operations,” said Shane Davis, Longmont resident and Sierra Club chapter member. “The industry has operated largely without meaningful and safe regulations and we must not let that happen any longer.”
In the lawsuit, Earthworks and Sierra Club also plan to defend Longmont’s new hazardous materials disclosure rule for chemicals transported on Longmont’s roadways, as well as the city’s new wildlife habitat and species protection rule, as they do not conflict with state law.
The State and oil industry may oppose the environmental groups’ intervention, although the Boulder County court previously allowed the industry association COGA to intervene. Attorneys for the environmental groups expect a ruling from the court in about 30 days, and the case to proceed to a decision on the merits of the State’s claims later this spring.
This lawsuit could have a precedential effect on other Colorado communities working to pass similar local regulations to protect the health and environment of residents across the state from the threats of rampant oil and gas development.
For more information on Sierra Club’s efforts to protect communities from harmful oil and gas operations go to http://content.sierraclub.org/naturalgas ; and to http://rmc.sierraclub.org/ ; and for Earthworks see http://fracking.earthworksaction.org.