Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams announced that the setback measure for oil and gas development has qualified to be on the November 6 statewide ballot.
The measure would mandate that new oil and gas development, including fracing, be a minimum distance of 2,500 feet from occupied buildings, waterways and other areas designated as “vulnerable.”
Backers of Initiative 97 submitted signatures on Aug. 6 for the measure. A 5-percent random sample of the submitted signatures projected the number of valid signatures to be greater than 110 percent of the total number of signatures required for placement on the ballot, the Secretary of State’s office said in a press release.
Petition verification summary for No. 97:
| Total number of qualified signatures submitted | 172,834 |
| 5% of qualified signatures submitted (random sample) | 8,642 |
| Total number of entries accepted (valid) from the random sample | 6,160 |
| Total number of entries rejected (invalid) from the random sample | 2,482 |
| Number of projected valid signatures from the random sample | 123,195 |
| Total number of signatures required for placement on the ballot | 98,492 |
| Projected percentage of required valid signatures | 125.08% |
What happens in If Colorado voters give the thumbs up to this change in Colorado law on Nov. 6
If the measure is approved by voters in Colorado 68 days from now, the measure will effectively prohibit new drilling and other oil and gas activities in most of the oil and gas producing areas of the state, according to a study by the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission.
Colorado Setback Measure—Initiative 97—Makes the Ballot: only the white, or unshaded, areas shown on this COGCC map would be open to new drilling and fracturing according to a COGCC study of initiative 97’s exclusions.
What Colorado is voting for
Proposed change to Colorado Revised Statutes being voted on by Colorado on Nov. 6.
Initiative 108 — Takings Amendment — made the ballot too
Another initiative–#108–made the ballot yesterday. If passed by voters in November, the amendment requires that property owners be compensated for any reduction in property value caused by state laws or regulations. If both issues are voted in on November 6, the two punch shot to Colorado’s incoming tax revenue and outgoing ‘takings payments’ could severely impair the state’s economy.
