{"id":20385,"date":"2019-12-02T13:46:16","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T20:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=61847"},"modified":"2019-12-02T13:46:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T20:46:16","slug":"more-than-a-year-since-prop-112-failed-the-fight-over-oil-and-gas-rages-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/more-than-a-year-since-prop-112-failed-the-fight-over-oil-and-gas-rages-on\/","title":{"rendered":"More than a year since Prop 112 failed, the fight over oil and gas rages on"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
An oil and gas well owned by SRC Energy Inc. is located just east of 71st Avenue south of 4th Street in Greeley Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019.<\/strong>
Alex McIntyre\/amcintyre@greeleytribune.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The ongoing war over oil and gas drilling in Colorado is ongoing for a reason \u2014 it\u2019s an existential fight for both sides of the line. Proposition 112, the controversial failed 2018 ballot measure, was just the beginning of that.<\/p>\n

But what\u2019s motivating the fight in the trenches? And what does it mean for the future and the present of the industry and of Greeley and Weld County?<\/p>\n

Why keep fighting?<\/h2>\n

The reasons to keep battling on the industry side make sense. If regulations become too restrictive, it\u2019ll become increasingly close to impossible to sustain business in the state. But, outgunned and outmanned, why keep fighting against it?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s several studies that have come out (since 112\u2019s failure) that have come to the conclusion that if all of the permits for oil and gas that have already been permitted are acted upon, and then we figuratively burn those fossil fuels, that the climate will warm beyond 2 degrees,\u201d said Anne Lee Foster, the communications director for Colorado Rising, which lobbied hard for 112\u2019s passage and continues to fight for stricter regulations since its failure. \u201cThat\u2019s what the Paris Agreement said we\u2019re going to try to avoid \u2014 catastrophic climate disaster scenarios. From a climate perspective, we\u2019re definitely worse off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been more health studies that have come out showing impacts from oil and gas developments, most recently the study from the (Colorado Department of Health and Environment) modeling exposure to chemicals like benzene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Activists aren\u2019t just mad at oil and gas for fun. They truly believe that drilling threatens the planet in the long-term, and public health in the near-term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt a lot of personal guilt (after 112 failed),\u201d Foster said. \u201cBecause I understood the impacts that would come from this. As someone who understands intimately the impacts this industry has on communities, having read the studies and had so many personal conversations with people who\u2019ve lived with the nightmare of oil and gas, I understood what kind of harm was going to come from 112 not passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understood we were up against a behemoth that out-resourced us enormously, but the guilt of what was going to happen to communities, to children, to the climate as a result of 112 not passing was a big and present thing to me throughout this past year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some or all of those claims, of course, are disputed by those in the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband is a mechanic, and he never goes to the doctor,\u201d said Blythe Driver, a recent city Greeley council candidate and the wife of an Oxy maintenance foreman, with a chuckle. \u201cI have such a hard time with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

While setbacks are just one part of what the COGCC is addressing with its new rules \u2014 the final set of which are expected to be released in the spring \u2014 112\u2019s setback-expanding legacy lives on for a reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cSetbacks do address climate issues, because they do keep minerals in the ground and decrease operations overall,\u201d Foster said. \u201cSo it does impact the climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The echoes of 112 were heard again just this past month, in fact, when a CDPHE study prompted the COGCC to increase scrutiny on well permits within 2,000 feet of certain buildings, up from 1,500 previously.<\/p>\n

Just this week readings near Greeley\u2019s Bella Romero elementary schools \u2014 which, notoriously, are quite close to an active drilling site \u2014 showed elevated benzene in the atmosphere, prompting further concern and consideration from the CDPHE.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s coming<\/h2>\n

The fight isn\u2019t close to being over.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext steps, we\u2019re full-speed ahead on lawsuits with the COGCC asking for a stay on permitting until the rule-making is complete,\u201d Foster said. \u201cWe\u2019re also looking at ballot initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The industry is armed for the conflict, too, as you\u2019d expect, even though it\u2019s already felt the wounds of battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a decline in capital investment in the (Denver-Julesburg) Basin,\u201d API Colorado executive director Lynn Granger said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen some layoffs in the state. We\u2019re pretty fresh, it\u2019s, what? Six months or so since 181 passed, and we have not gotten into what will be very technical, controversial rule-making quite yet. We\u2019ve seen a decline in permitting as well from the COGCC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to really look at, \u2018OK, is the sky falling?\u2019 No, but we\u2019re starting to see negative impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever happens, the impact extends beyond those with an immediate stake in the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the sky\u2019s falling, but I respect those that have concerns about health and safety, and I\u2019ll certainly listen to anybody,\u201d Greeley mayor John Gates said.<\/p>\n

Gates and other municipal and county leaders know well the power oil and gas wields in Weld.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been fantastic for economic health going back a long period of time with regard to the growth in Greeley,\u201d Gates said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what impact there\u2019d be if oil and gas were to go away completely, but obviously it\u2019d have a huge impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, the industry was largely responsible for a $50 million bump in Weld County\u2019s property tax haul this year. That\u2019s hard to walk away from, and area leaders have no intention of doing so.<\/p>\n

Getting on in time of war<\/h2>\n

In the meantime, whatever\u2019s coming next in the ongoing timeline of Proposition 112 and its legacy, there\u2019s still the present.<\/p>\n

Granger, a strategic communicator by background, believes there\u2019s an important story that needs to be told that has nothing to do with the almighty dollar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 112 failed, a lot of the messaging used by the industry was the economic impacts,\u201d Granger said. \u201cOf course, this industry is a cornerstone of Colorado\u2019s economy, and it\u2019d have a huge impact. But what we\u2019ve been failing to do with this industry is communicating about everything we have been and continue to do around health, safety and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Granger points out the people supporting SB181\u2019s passage weren\u2019t interested in money. They were interested in safety and in health.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t been speaking the same language,\u201d Granger said. \u201cWe consistently fall back on the economic impact piece of it, and very much want to focus on the other things that people are raising concerns about and doing our best to address those concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driver, a mother and a homeowner in Greeley, has a perspective that followed this concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect our homes and we\u2019re not going to destroy our own homes and sacrifice our children for the sake of money,\u201d Driver said. \u201cThat\u2019s not what we\u2019re doing. We\u2019re trying to make a living, raise families, plan for retirement, like anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the activists, the present and the future might as well be one in the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cA ballot initiative applies to the whole state,\u201d Foster said. \u201cRule-making applies to the whole state. The rule-making sets a floor that Weld County cannot go beneath in terms of regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those depending on the industry, the present is getting harder as the future looks more and more uncertain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know some people are starting to give up,\u201d Driver said. \u201cEspecially during the holidays, when people are losing jobs and contracts aren\u2019t being filled. There\u2019s families that have lost jobs and are looking for work. I\u2019d say to them to hang on. I\u2019d say not to give up on Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An oil and gas well owned by SRC Energy Inc. is located just east of 71st Avenue south of 4th Street in Greeley Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019.Alex McIntyre\/amcintyre@greeleytribune.com The ongoing war over oil and gas drilling in Colorado is ongoing for a reason \u2014 it\u2019s an existential fight for both sides of the line. Proposition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 07:40:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}