oil production

Organization Skills of Anti-Fracking Group Are a Boon to Colorado Oil and Gas

If we’re dependent upon the organizational skills of the top-level operators hoping to put Colorado Initiative 97 on the ballot, then it looks like the state oil and gas industry doesn’t have too much to worry about.

Anti-fracking organization Colorado Rising has spearheaded the gathering of signatures over the last several weeks in the hopes of getting Initiative 97 on the ballot in November. Unfortunately, thanks to what The New York Times referred to as a “routine contract dispute” with an out-of-state political consultant named Mike Selvaggio, several hundred of the gathered signatures went missing.

Ballot Initiative 97 proposes that oil and gas projects throughout the state of Colorado would be forced to ensure that extraction projects are at least 2,500 feet away from schools and domiciles. If passed into law, the measure would make 85 percent of non-federal land in Colorado off-limits to oil and gas production.

A few days later, it turned out that Selvaggio’s firm had closed its doors because it was owed money for its service. While Colorado Rising denies that claim, it makes sense that some “missing signatures” would have been the natural result of a lack of payment on the part of the anti-fracking group.

Either way, the potential failure of Initiative 97 because of bureaucratic bungling is enough to take some of the pressure off those fighting against the passage of this harmful legislation.

We’ve spent a lot of time discussing Initiative 97 over the last several weeks, not because the tumult makes for good stories, but because this legislative maneuver could devastate the energy industry in Colorado. The 2018 ballot is filled with several other hopefuls (including one that would finally make slavery illegal, but Initiative 97 is far and away the most pressing. Should it find its way onto the November ballot, it’s more important than ever to get out and vote to protect the economy and prosperity of Colorado.

Posted in Oil and Gas Politics.