Friday, June 24, 2011

Activists right to protest review of Colorado’s fracking rules

Submitted by Gwen Lachelt on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 12:03

Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project (OGAP) cheers the activists who spoke out yesterday challenging the STRONGER review of Colorado’s hydraulic fracturing rules. Citizen engagement of all types will only improve the process.

STRONGER (State Review of Oil and Gas Environmental Regulations) was created by federal agencies to review and validate state regulations as a means to fill the void left by oil & gas industry-won loopholes in federal environmental law. It should not exist. For decades, we have worked to close the loopholes that created it. And, in the absence of strong federal oversight, we continue to work diligently at state and local levels to enact strong safeguards because federal regulations continue to fall short.

Earthworks participates – Wilma Subra, our board member and Bruce Baizel, our senior staff attorney – in STRONGER because we work through all available avenues to protect communities and the environment from the destructive impacts of mining, digging and drilling. STRONGER is an imperfect process in need of improvement. But it will exist with our participation or not. Without our presence, communities would have little or no voice at all.

Earthworks’ OGAP believes that hydraulic fracturing should only be permitted if it can be done safely. Whether that is possible remains an open question – and will remain so as long as industry and its allies stonewall those who wish to answer it.

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