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.

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Total ban on fracking not possible, says panel of experts in Colorado

By Monte WhaleyThe Denver Post

COMMERCE CITY — Residents on Tuesday night learned that Colorado cities cannot ban hydraulic fracturing outright in their communities, but they were told there are other ways to ensure the drilling will be done safely.

About 100 people wary of extraction operations near their homes listened quietly as they were told any effort to outlaw those procedures would likely be overturned by a judge. Attorney Barbara Green also said there is little a city can do to regulate the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

But cities can have a say over the impacts a fracking well will have on local wildlife and other environmental concerns, Green said.

"Those kinds of regulations are more supportable," she said.

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By the way, the Denver Post appears to be a PROFRACKING News agency! It appears that everything they spew out is favorable to the industry.