Colorado’s anti-oil politics
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper
A letter to Colo. Gov. John Hickenlooper from a group of sitting Colorado mayors, council members, trustees and county commissioners, dated May 15, 2017, made a plea to the Colorado governor “to override the COGCC vote and decline to file a petition for certiorari review of Martinez. We further ask that, if the Court grants certiorari on the petition of industry, that you decline to further participate in the litigation.”
Most of the local government council signatories to the letter are from northern Colorado jurisdictions with oil and gas development activity. Many of these same jurisdictions had levied frac bans in recent years that were later overturned by courts. The sitting group of city and county leaders included Boulder, Longmont, Adams County, Broomfield, Commerce City, Erie, Fort Collins, Lafayette, Louisville, Thornton, Westminster and La Plata County.
In their letter to Gov. Hickenlooper, the signatories said:
“The COGCC voted on May 1, 2017, to request certiorari review of the Martinez opinion,” the letter said.
“Now we request a specific action: direct the Colorado Oil & Gas Commission not to file a petition to the Colorado Supreme Court for certiorari review of the Martinez v. Colorado Oil & Gas Commission opinion.
“Martinez held that the COGCC must make all of its oil and gas development decisions, including in rule-makings, subject to the “protection of public health, safety, and welfare, including protection of the environment and wildlife resources.” This well-reasoned statutory interpretation emphasizing the primacy of public and environmental welfare will help to protect state residents in general and is critically important in light of the Firestone disaster.
“[R]equesting appellate review of the Martinez holding will telegraph to the public you don’t mean what you say. Specifically, it will show that oil and gas development is more important than public health and safety to your administration,” the letter said.
Case in question: Martinez v. COGCC
“The lawsuit is one of several that have been filed around the country on behalf of young litigants, charging that state and federal agencies aren’t truly looking out for them (and future generations) in the way they issue drilling permits for oil and natural gas. Each one is a broadside against America’s ongoing reliance on fossil fuels, decrying a range of adverse consequences, from pollution-related respiratory ailments to environmental degradation and climate change,” Westword said in its February coverage of the case.
Source: COGCC
Earlier in the Earth Guardians’ (an environmental group the plaintiffs are members of) case, Denver District Court Judge Eric Elliff ruled against the teens’ argument, declaring that the COGCC is merely required to “strike a balance” between oil and gas development and protecting public health, the environment and wildlife, according to Westword’s report.
However, on March 23, 2017, the Court of Appeals returned a 3-2 decision reversing the lower court, potentially introducing a new interpretation of the scope of considerations the COGCC would be required to include in its approach to rule making and permitting for oil and gas operations in Colorado.
The majority of Colorado’s current ongoing oil and gas development is in the Wattenberg field, chiefly in Weld County north of Denver. No county officials from Weld County or city officials from Firestone, where the recent home explosion occurred, were included in the letter to Gov. Hickenlooper.
Map: Google
COGCC data for wells and pending permits for wells, by county, appears below. The interactive data is here.
Source: COGCC
