Open letter to the Honorable John Hickenlooper, Governor State of Colorado

July, 31 2012 Dear Governor, Let me introduce myself, I am Carl B. Erickson. I reside in Weld county Colorado. I am currently running for Weld county Commissioner at Large as a write- in candidate. Overall I am very pleased with your tenure as Governor, especially your handling of the recent tragedies in Aurora and the wildfire epidemic. But as a resident of Weld county, the county which has the largest number of oil and gas wells in it, I have one very large area of concern. I am heartily worried about the future of our great State, I fear the will and welfare of our citizens are being widely ignored. Widely voiced resistance to unwanted hydro-fracture drilling and the plethora of support industries involved in it are met by platitudes and rhetoric by our elected officials at the state and local levels. You, sir, are among the issuers of these. On July 17, 2012 you were quoted as saying “Like any industrial process, fracking has some risks but, really, if done properly, certainly out in the West, there is literally no risk — certainly much less than many industrial processes,” in an interview for Fortune Magazine. Which is it Governor? Some risk, literally no risk, or much less risk? Is it the ‘some risk’ of polluting reported by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission estimated at 44% of spills at fracking pads resulting in contamination of groundwater? Or the ‘literally no risk’ imposed by drinking water contamination as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency in their draft report on contamination in Pavillion WY? Or the ‘much less risk’ posed by the EPA analysis of the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas being 9,000 times higher than previously reported? Or, maybe the operative phrase is, ‘if done properly’. Perhaps the necessary steps are not in place to insure the responsible drilling of which you speak. Perhaps the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s maximum fine of $1000 dollars a day per incident isn’t anything more than an acceptable operating cost to the offenders. Or maybe the handful of investigators we have is not enough. Whatever the cause, if we are not ensuring drilling is ‘done properly’ we are ignoring the health and welfare of our environment and our residents. Stunts like swilling fracking fluid as you said you did in a March 1 2012 radio report for KUNC, do little to assuage concerns when residents who live in the vicinity of frack sites can observe the effect of spilled fluids first-hand. Dying plants and dead water life are ample proof that just because you can drink a little something (grain alcohol for example), doesn’t mean it is healthy or conducive to growth when applied in gallons. Residents of Weld county find it a hard pill to swallow when ample water to raise crops and quench the thirst of livestock and yards is unavailable to them. Insult is added to this injury when rows of fracking water trucks line up 20 deep to fill up with water from municipal fire hydrants as they do in Greeley, and then transport that water on county roads so dry they spew dust high in the sky and depress the roadbed with their weight, right past farmers and ranchers whose crops and livestock could have been sustained for a while on the contents of those trucks. The contents of said trucks to be pumped into the impervious shale layer that will only return a small fraction of its contents to water cycle. I’m sure you have heard of these issues, as well as the issues of inappropriate use of roads and blatant disregard of traffic laws in Weld County and elsewhere in the state. Yes we have jobs, but at what cost? At what level of quality are we subsisting in this energy economy? Cash is one of those things that may be edible, but is not beneficial as a primary foodstuff. Human and environmental issues are not things we can plug in to a cost/benefit analysis; any loss in either of these areas negates any benefit that might be gained. If this industry cannot operate ‘properly’ it needs to be halted until such time as our lives and livelihood can be protected. Therefore, Governor, I implore you to reconsider your stance on the practice of hydro-fracturing, considering the welfare of the majority of the citizens of this state before the financial benefits of a minority interest. Respectfully, Carl B. Erickson https://sites.google.com/site/electcarlberickson/

EXPLOSIVE OIL AND GAS LEAK OR CRUEL HOAX?

 

As for the bombshell 'Oil and Gas industry announcement', a few copies of which were allegedly found at the Convention Center yesterday and read with enthusiasm by yesterday evening's protestors...
                  What the frack is this?!
This one page document (scanned and attached), titled "The Colorado Oil and Gas Industry
Alliance Proudly Announces:  The Energy Revolution, Our Pledge to Colorado", states that:

"the time has come for our industry to acknowledge that a profound energy revolution is now necessary, to assure a healthy future for all of us". 

Citing scientific climate evidence, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon, and even the insurance industry and economic analysis, it concludes that:

"Frankly, none of us can afford or accept the large scale catastrophes associated with climate collapse.  Therefore, for those compelling reasons and because we have children too, we hereby pledge to an energy revolution, equivalent in scale to the challenges that face our generation.  We pledge to transition from fossil fuels to alternative, sustainable energy source development, that also protects our most valuable natural resources:  water, climate stability, Colorado's unparalleled natural environment, and the health of Coloradans."

WOW!!!  Then it goes on to "acknowledge the pioneering vision and practical roadmap of Colorado's Amory Lovins, and commit to implementing his program of 100% sustainable energy by 2050."   WOW squared !  Concession to and agreement with the Man with a Plan !

Concluding with:  "Over the next few months we will be releasing additional information regarding our transition steps, which will begin with asset relallocation.  We look forward to announcing our progress and leading the way to a bright tomorrow."

'Stunning ' would hardly begin to characterize this announcement!  This would be unprecedented. A truly revolutionary paradigm shift !  It's what we have all been asking for and working towards, with such profoundly disappointing responses or lack thereof from industry to date...

It seems way too good to be true. Where did this come from?  Delivered by wild birds?

Who would have done this?  Someone's idea of a joke?  What the frack?

Let's examine:
It's dated Aug. 16th.  There is a session at Denver's Energy Epicenter Oil and Gas conference on the 16th with "Paradigm Shift" in the title, but the description hardly matches the above complete and total paradigm shift.  Since this announcement document was found on the 14th but dated the 16th, is it a leak of an advance draft?   Any of you attending the Paradigm Shift session on the 16th, please let the world know whether it supports or refutes the announcement content ! 

The theme of this year's conference is "Energy Revolution", but none of the descriptive material for the conference hints at a real energy revolution, rather, it all seems to be about ramping up fracking for oil and gas from our Colorado Niobrara shale. 

There is no such entity as the "Colorado Oil and Gas Industry Alliance" that would "proudly announce",  only the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

So, what is this thing- a massive oil and gas leak or a cruel hoax ? 

Seems most likely that it's the latter, but it does provide fodder for thought. 

We could all take this opportunity to :

-Ask the press to check it out, and answer the question: Explosive Oil and Gas Leak or Cruel Hoax? 

-Ask a conference press representative to provide a response to the question: Explosive Oil and Gas Leak or Cruel Hoax? 

- Contact COGA and companies like Anadarko and Encana and Conoco Philips, that are actively drilling in Colorado, and ask them if they are really taking the "Pledge to Colorado" or not

- Contact the Governor's office and ask if the Governor is going to go on record as taking the "Pledge to Colorado" or not

 
- Pass it around to friends and colleagues and ask them what they think about following through with the "Pledge to Colorado"

 

Let's get on this  ASAP and start this conversation in Colorado around a "Colorado Pledge"!   Heartbreakingly cruel hoax that this likely is, at the very least,  it is a vision of the rationally operating world we are clamoring for and an opportunity for dialogue.  

Sigh.. 

Commerce City approves fracking rules

Denver Post
July 2 2012
By Yesenia Robles

COMMERCE CITY — City councilmembers voted unanimously to approve a set of city-level regulations on oil and gas to create a way for the city to retain control in regulating proposed fracking and drilling operations.

A crowd of about 20 residents wearing bright blue name tags applauded the 8-0 vote. Councilwoman Jadie Carson was absent at the Monday night meeting.

Before the vote, one man — a visitor from Lafayette — asked the city to keep in mind that residents and local officials must hold control to strictly regulate fracking operations that he said could be dangerous.

The relatively new process of hydraulic fracking involves pumping water, sand and varying mixtures of chemicals into a well to fracture rock and release oil and gas. Industry officials say fracking is an environmentally sound method of extracting oil and gas from deep underground.

Continue reading...

Court Strikes Down Bush Administration BLM Plan to Drill on Roan Plateau

55,000 acres of Colorado pristine land protected for now


Earth Justice

June 25, 2012

Denver, CO — 

One of Colorado’s richest environmental and wildlife gems, the Roan Plateau, has a new lease on life thanks to a federal court ruling Friday setting aside a BLM plan that would have allowed oil and gas companies to drill thousands of wells on 55,000 acres of the Roan.

The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Marcia S. Krieger in Denver, sets aside a resource management plan approved in 2007 during the Bush administration that would have sacrificed for oil and gas development some of North America’s rarest plants, genetically pure cutthroat trout, tens of thousands of acres of wilderness-quality land, and crucial habitat for prize herds of elk and deer. BLM had acknowledged that drilling the Roan would cause permanent and irreversible losses to native trout populations and rare plant species, and also that wilderness-quality lands and opportunities for backcountry recreation would be permanently destroyed.

Judge Krieger ruled that BLM’s plan should be set aside because the agency failed to consider a more balanced alternative that would have better protected the Roan’s wildlife, plants and pristine lands. In addition, the Court ruled, BLM failed to take a hard look at the air pollution that would result from drilling the Roan.

“The Roan Plateau is one of Colorado’s richest environmental and wildlife gems,” said Earthjustice attorney Michael Freeman. “The Court’s ruling means that the Roan will get a second look and hopefully preserved.”

Continue reading...

One dead in explosion at BP compression station

Durango Herald
June 25, 2012

By Dale Rodebaugh By , Shane BenjaminHerald staff writers


Enlargephoto

DAVID BERGELAND/Durango Herald

Officials at the scene of an explosion at a methane compression station about five miles east of Elmore’s Corner on U.S. Highway 160.

GEM VILLAGE – An explosion at a large gas compression station owned by BP killed one worker and seriously injured two others.

The explosion, which occurred about 8:15 a.m. today at BP’s Piñon Compression Station, temporarily closed U.S. Highway 160 five miles east of Elmore’s Corner.

“At this time our immediate concern is for the people involved,” said Julie Levy, a local spokeswoman for BP.

The plant has been shutdown, and there is no remaining threat to workers or the public, she said.

“The incident is essentially over,” Levy said.

One contract worker died and two contract workers were injured, she said. Eleven workers were on site at the time of the explosion.

“Everybody has been accounted for, and there is nothing ongoing about this incident,” she said.

Residents in the area reported hearing the explosion.

Continue reading...

Chesapeake Energy Settles Contaminated Water Well Lawsuit for $1.6M

June 24th
2012 Frack Check WV


Kevin Begos writing for the Associated Press, as reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer on June 23, describes an open legal settlement in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, involving three families who experienced contaminated water wells as a result of Marcellus drilling by Chesapeake Energy. 


 Jared McMicken of Wyalusing said the agreement reached Thursday provides little comfort since his drinking water was ruined by nearby drilling, and his family must move.


 “We’ve lost our house, and we’re not going to get out of it what we got into it,” he said.


“We have a bunch of people who have to leave their homes,” said McMicken. McMicken said he and the other families in the case insisted that any settlement be made public. The families settled for $1.6 million. 


The families will have to give Chesapeake the properties by the end of 2012. The arbitration trial began this week and was settled on the fourth day. Attorney Todd O’Malley said he believes this is the first case involving pollution in the Marcellus Shale region where settlement terms were publicly disclosed. Past disputes have been sealed.


Continue reading...

Sadly, one of thousands to come we assume.  Brace yourselves oil and gas!

Worry for homeowners who face the threat of fracking

Property prices in some area are being threatened by fracking, a controversial method of extracting shale gas

• 
  Jill Insley
• guardian.co.uk, Saturday 23 June 2012 17.59 EDT
• 
  

A protester shows his feelings about fracking near Ardingly Reservoir, West Sussex. Photograph: Chloe Parker /Alamy

Fracking has already caused small earthquakes in the north-west, but homeowners in the vicinity of shale gas extraction could face an even worse aftershock: falling house prices.

John Johnson, manager of estate agent Farrell Heyworth in the Lancashire town of Poulton-le-Fylde, near one of the main drilling sites, says: "There are a lot of properties coming on to the market, and some of the owners are saying they want to get out before prices start dropping."

Fracking involves drilling a well hundreds of metres into the ground and pumping it full of water, sand and chemicals to fracture the rock and release methane gas. The process was halted in the UK in June 2011 after two earthquakes in two months near Blackpool followed drilling at sites in Lancashire by Cuadrilla Resources. An independent scientific report recently recommended that fracking could resume, subject to stricter controls, but fracking companies are still awaiting the results of a government review.

In the meantime Cuadrilla says it is considering where next to site its drill rig. The company, one of four with a permit to search for shale gas in Britain, has 10 sites so far, most of which are in Lancashire, but the company also has sites in Cowden in Kent, Lingfield in Surrey and has planning permission for exploratory drilling in Balcombe in West Sussex. It says it has no plans to carry out work on the southern sites at this time. Richard Sexton, a director of esurv, the UK's biggest provider of residential valuation services, said levels of public awareness about fracking are still low. He added that as awareness increased, fracking would affect house prices, "blighting properties in the areas perceived to be affected".

He believes the effect would be similar to that of the high speed rail line planned from London to Birmingham, HS2 – painful but relatively short term: "Prices have gone down 10% to 20% within a mile of the proposed route, and prices will remain depressed until the line is up and running. Reality is never quite as bad as we think it is."

Continue reading...

New Jersey State Assembly Votes to Ban Fracking Wastewater

Source: ECOWATCH.ORG

6-22-2012

Environment New Jersey

In the latest state action against fracking, the New Jersey Assembly approved a measure to ban the processing of fracking wastewater. Environment New Jersey and its allies stepped up efforts to build support for Assemblywoman Connie Wagner’s bill after learning that fracking waste had already been shipped to New Jersey and discharged into the Delaware via a DuPont facility in Salem County. Legislators approved the bill (A575) by a veto-proof majority of 56-19.

“Toxic waste from fracking should not be allowed anywhere near New Jersey’s waterways,” said Doug O’Malley, interim director of Environment New Jersey. “The New Jersey Assembly chose drinking water over gas drillers today.”

Fracking is a gas drilling technique that involves pumping a mix of chemicals, sand and water down a well at such high pressure that it cracks open gas-bearing rock formations. When the process is complete, wastewater–often laced with toxics like benzene, heavy metals and even radioactive material-flows back to the surface. Fracking wastewater has contaminated drinking water sources on numerous occasions in other states.

The gas drilling boom in Pennsylvania has already produced more than 1.3 billion gallons of contaminated wastewater, and drilling operators have been increasingly sending that wastewater to surrounding states. In New Jersey DuPont has processed the waste at a facility which discharges into the Delaware River.

“Fracking is the latest source of toxic waste,” said O’Malley. “That is the last thing New Jersey needs.”

Environment New Jersey cited documented cases of fracking waste polluting water and causing other problems:

In Pennsylvania, after fracking wastewater was discharged from sewage treatment plants into the Monongahela River, the state advised 325,000 people in and around Pittsburgh not to use their tap water for more than a week.

In New Mexico, state records show drilling waste has contaminated groundwater at nearly 400 different sites.

In Ohio, deep well-injection of fracking wastewater was linked to a 4.0 level earthquake in the Youngstown area last December

Continue reading...

.....................

BAN IT! The liability is enormous and sadly someday, some community, somewhere, will drink the toxic kool-aid. Then what?  Will we say: 'We told you so?" Who will be liable for the catastrophe?  We'd bet anything that the oil and gas industry will be completely indemnified over a disaster like this.

This industry is sick!

Fracking Our Future: Western Resource Advocates

Source: Western Resource Advocates

We are entering a new era in oil and gas development in the West, and nowhere is that more evident than along the Front Range of Colorado. Increased drilling and production near communities and populated areas — much closer to population centers than in previous decades — are raising new questions about potential impacts to water supplies, air and water quality, noise levels, and property values.


This report addresses one of the most important issues: that of water availability for new oil and gas development in Colorado. Specifically, it addresses the questions, “How much water is required for new production, and where will that water come from?” Colorado is a semi-arid state with limited water resources that must be shared by a wide variety of water users. Western Resource Advocates (WRA) — along with communities, businesses, institutions, and citizens throughout the state — have concerns about water needs for oil and gas development and how that demand impacts our water resources. This report will inform elected officials, decision makers, communities, and families about oil and gas industry water needs and the potential impacts and tradeoffs that must be addressed. It provides specific recommendations that decision makers can use in creating policies to make sure that Colorado’s water resources are properly managed along with oil and gas development. 



LINK TO PDF

Facts Don't Lie, Oil and Gas Does. Period

By Joshua Ruschhaupt

Most of the natural gas industry has turned its back on reasonable public health and environmental protections, and government oversight and enforcement needs to rebalance the equation.

As one of America's oldest and largest environmental organizations, the Sierra Club's oil and natural gas policies have evolved as we have learned more about adverse effects on our health and environment, as science evolves, and as we identify operational failures by both the government and industry.

The harms caused by the entire process of producing oil and natural gas must end. Despite claims to the contrary, groundwater contamination caused by drilling and fracking practices is prevalent and must be brought under control.

In February, Shane Davis, the Sierra Club Rocky Mountain Chapter Oil & Gas Research Manager, announced statistics on a sampling of 1,000 spill reports from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) website, dated after 2008. Davis stated, "We know that in Colorado, 43 percent of all spills contaminate groundwater, and 100 percent of all spills contaminate soils with toxins like deadly benzene, ethylene, toluene and xylene. There are horrific volumes of toxic and radioactive liquids that are never recovered from groundwater and soil."

Compounding the problem of spills, drilling and fracking operations are running in the heart of Colorado communities. We are alarmed that state and local governments continue to allow heavy industrial activities as close as 350 feet to occupied residences. The industry's operations are far from Best Management Practices (BMPs), due to their inherent failure rates. Overturning the numerous federal exemptions would be the first step in implementing BMPs for the oil and gas industry.

The Colorado School of Public Health states that people living within a half-mile radius from active oil and gas production suffer a greater risk for health complications and illness. If a resident complains of industrial odors to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, they often take 48 hours to respond, allowing the pollution to dissipate, eliminating the chance to properly investigate the report, and offering no answers for the homeowner. Some dangerous vapors are not even detectable by the human nose. There are no studies on the health impacts of drilling pad air toxins, and we agree with The Denver Post editorial board that comprehensive health impact studies are needed. In the meantime, Coloradans are exposed, yet unstudied, guinea pigs.

How do Colorado families protect their health and safety if an accident occurs next to their home or children's school? We believe this hazardous industrial activity must not continue to be exempt from human and environmental health protections, or allowed to operate next door to homes with growing children, elderly people, and other vulnerable populations.

The Sierra Club holds COGCC accountable in its mission, part of which states, "Responsible development results in ... the prevention and mitigation of adverse environmental impacts." COGCC can no longer be allowed to fail in this mission. The commission, the governor, and the industry should not be publicly defending the impacts of drilling that uses fracking. They should be mandating protection over profit. Every day we hear more about families being unable to drink their water due to fracking.

Colorado needs to move forward with our abundant, clean, inexpensive, healthy, jobs-generating, domestic, and renewable energy supplies. Because of the hazards created by production and consumption of coal, oil and natural gas, we need to move beyond these fuel sources as expeditiously as possible. Natural gas is a bridge fuel to further harming the planet, including our local environment and human health.

Rushing ahead to drill and burn more oil and natural gas while allowing the industry to operate in secrecy with inadequate protections will continue to harm people and wildlife, squander clean water, air and soil, and slow the development of cleaner forms of energy. We must act now for a better energy future.

Joshua Ruschhaupt is director of the Sierra Club Rocky Mountain Chapter. Other members of the Oil & Gas Team contributed to this commentary.

Report: Volume of water used for fracking in Colorado could serve 79,000 households a year

New study on oil and gas industry released by Boulder's Western Resource Advocates

By John Aguilar, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:   06/20/2012 11:56:54 AM MDT

Updated:   06/20/2012 06:33:12 PM MDT

The volume of water required annually to develop new oil and gas wells in the state could supply up to 79,000 Colorado households for a year based on average residential use, according to a report issued Wednesday by Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates.

The report goes on to say that when re-use of water is factored in at the residential level, the amount of water used by the oil and gas industry could actually serve up to 118,400 homes in Colorado.

"Governments -- local, state and national -- really need to take a look at this and plan out drilling and make sure they do it right," said Jason Bane, spokesman for Western Resource Advocates. "We don't want to look around 10 years from now and say we shouldn't have used so much water."

But Tisha Schuller, president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the industry's water use is miniscule compared to all water consumption in the state.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association estimates the industry will use 6.5 trillion gallons this year -- just over one-tenth of a percent of total water use in the state.

"I'm not sure it's helpful to single out our industry when there are so many users," Schuller said. "We're still just in the noise of Colorado's water use."

Continue reading...

Counter-terrorism unit set up in Alberta to help protect energy industry, public

The Canadian Press
By John Cotter
June 6, 2012

EDMONTON - The federal government has set up a counter-terrorism unit in Alberta and one of its main jobs will be to help protect the energy industry from attacks by extremists.

The integrated national security enforcement team will be led by the RCMP and include officers from CSIS, the Edmonton and Calgary police forces and federal border patrol.

Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud said the key to effectively guarding the labyrinth of oil and natural gas wells, pipelines and refineries in Alberta will be to gather intelligence to prevent attacks before they happen.

"When we look at the booming economy of the province of Alberta over the years, one would be led to believe that there is an increased threat to the infrastructure," Michaud said Wednesday.

"We are basically looking at any individuals or groups that pose a threat to critical infrastructure, to our economy, to our safety that is based on either religious, political or ideological goals."

There are about 400,000 kilometres of provincially regulated energy pipelines criss-crossing Alberta. That does not include federally regulated or smaller distribution pipelines.

The Energy Resources Conservation Board estimates there are 176,000 operating oil and natural gas wells dotting Alberta's landscape. There are also eight oilsands mines, five upgraders and more than 250 in situ oilsands facilities.

The 32-member Alberta team is the latest to be announced by Ottawa since the 9-11 terrorist attacks almost 11 years ago. Other teams are already operating in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.

Continue reading...

We are the protectors of the environment and you coin those who oppose your energy as eco-terrorists. Shame on you @$$holes!   The industry is nothing more than a group of environmental terrorists and yet the  'Energy Oligarchy' has paid you to push us around as if we were your minions.  Fractivists will prevail in protecting the elements of life! This is not a threat, the oil and gas industry is the threat. The industry is polluting our way of life, stealing our lives for a dollar bill.  The industry is criminally destroying our water, filling our clean air with carcinogens and killing our children.

Hey Industry: YOU ARE THE TERRORIST!  YOU ARE THE 'ENVIRONMENTAL TERRORIST' AND YOU SHOULD BE ARRESTED. 

Fort Collins company releases test kit for fracking contamination

Coloradoan.com
Fort Collins, CO
Bobby Magill

Salud Family Health is taking fracking seriously, and they’re using a new device created by Fort Collins-based Forston Labs to help them discover any of the oil and gas industry’s impacts to patients’ drinking water.

Ed Hendrikson started the environmental health program at Salud Family Health Centers 27 years ago, and Salud’s clinics have been testing patients’ drinking water for various contaminants ever since.

Recently, a new water quality concern has drawn Salud’s attention: Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the energy industry’s technique of injecting millions of gallons of water, toxic chemicals and sand deep into the ground to get oil and natural gas to flow to the surface.

Salud, which has a clinic in Fort Collins, is based in Fort Lupton, near the center of Weld County’s oil and gas drilling boom. When some of Salud’s patients saw a TV news report showing a Fort Lupton resident’s tapwater being lit on fire, they asked Salud staff whether their water is at risk from fracking.

“With our patient population having so much fracking around the area, you wonder if there is contamination, will that cause some problems in our community?” Hendrikson said.

Continue reading...

10 years since Frederick fought to a draw on oil/gas rules

By Scott Rochat Longmont Times-Call

Posted:   06/02/2012 07:24:36 PM MDT

Updated:   06/02/2012 08:22:14 PM MDT

An oil well sits in a field south of the new Frederick High School. ( LEWIS GEYER )

FREDERICK -- As Longmont struggles over how to regulate oil and gas drilling, the nearby town of Frederick can sympathize.

Frederick, of course, sits in the southwest corner of Weld County -- or perhaps that should be "Welled County." About one-third of the state's active oil and gas wells sit in Weld, more than 17,000 at last count. Of those, 440 are in Frederick, according to town officials.

So the town's no stranger to the industry, or to attempts to deal with it. In fact, Frederick is a legal landmark in the field. Ten years ago, the town and North American Resources Co. (NARCO) were locked in a courtroom battle, waiting for Division IV of the Colorado Court of Appeals to have its say on just how far a town could

Frederick had regulations requiring each well site to be at least 350 feet from an occupied building. Division IV of the Colorado Court of Appeals judges struck down the setback regulations. ( LEWIS GEYER )

regulate a driller.

The results, to say the least, were mixed.

"The court in essence said, 'We're not going to tell you what to do. We're going to say you can do it, just not the way you have done it,'" said Cyril Vidergar, an attorney for the town.

A taxing issue

The issue really started even 10 years before that. Back in 1991, Frederick used to levy an "occupation tax" on oil and gas operators, a specific levy on anyone wanting to bring up oil and gas in the town limits. That got challenged in court and eventually settled -- but in the aftermath, state authorities made occupation taxes illegal in 1996.

Continue reading...

As we have stated last year: "It's WELL COUNTY" 

Erie Rising Holds Fractivist Rally - Guest Speakers: Angela Monti-Fox, Sierra Club, Clean Water action etc...

Erie Rising Holds Anti-fracking Rally


Please share this far and wide and please be sure to join us to fight for our community of Erie and beyond.

We have an excellent speaker line up, music and activities planned for the kids. The rally at the Community Center park will be followed by a march to the Canyon Creek Well Site for a peaceful hand holding to show our solidarity in this fight. We hope that you can join us this coming Saturday, June 2nd to make the voice of the people louder than the voice of the industry.

Please email contact@erierising.com or call (720)839-9079 with any questions.

................................................

If you are a 'FRACTIVIST' you will attend this event.

Erie mothers, children descend on Encana headquarters with anti-fracking petition

Group also heads to Gov. Hickenlooper's office at State Capitol to ask for governor's support

By John Aguilar, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:   05/22/2012 12:54:39 PM MDT

Updated:   05/22/2012 01:16:33 PM MDT

DENVER -- A small group of mothers and children from Erie marched into the building that houses Encana Corp.'s Denver headquarters this morning to present a petition signed by 21,000 people demanding that the energy giant forgo a planned natural gas drilling site near elementary schools and an adjoining neighborhood. 

The intention of the group, known as Erie Rising, was to ask Encana USA President Jeff Wojahn face-to-face to abandon plans to extract gas at the Canyon Creek well site near Red Hawk Elementary and Erie Elementary schools. 

But the group of 10 was told by Encana spokeswoman Wendy Wiedenbeck that Wojahn was out of town. She said she would hand off the thick stack of signatures to the president when he returned. 

Erie Rising then ventured over to the State Capitol to present a copy of the petition to Gov. John Hickenlooper but were told by an aide that he was not in either. 

Preparation for drilling at the site, just north of Erie Parkway and west of County Line Road, is expected to begin later this week and drilling itself should begin sometime after June 4. 

Jen Palazzolo, an Erie resident and one of the group's leaders, said despite the lack of any high-level encounters in Denver this morning, the fight to derail drilling at the Canyon Creek site is far from over. 

"We're not defeated yet -- even if they begin operations," she said outside the governor's office. "We're going to continue to ask them to abandon this site right up until they put the drill in the ground. It's a completely inappropriate industrial activity in a residential area." 

Continue reading...