After several weeks of back and forth, it seems as though Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and Boulder County will be seeing each other in court.

On Tuesday, February 14, AG Coffman filed suit against the state county over its five-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. Coffman called the suit illegal while Boulder County attorneys dismissed the claim as a waste of time.

In recent months, Colorado has become a breeding ground for the fracking debate. The state’s large liberal base has repeatedly butted heads with those hoping to extract the state’s wealth of petroleum resources. In Boulder, the most recent fight is boiling down to the legal outcome of a single question.

Should the locals control fracking in their area, or should the state oversee oil and gas developments?

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At the moment, the hopes are high in the energy industry that the next four years will see some really positive change. After a period of years in which the domestic oil and gas industry has seen a tremendous dry spell thanks to a combination of foreign meddling and increasingly harsh restrictions and regulations, even the possibility of hope is a sign of real, positive change. Of course, the outgoing President isn’t going to sit on his hands until President-elect Trump is sworn into office in January.

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In the growing debate over hydraulic fracturing, it would seem that Colorado is steadily becoming the front line for both the oil and gas industry and fracking protestors. In light of recent legislation failures in the state, though, there’s evidence to suggest the controversy is more hype than reality.

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Well, here’s something you don’t see every day. It seems that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is on shaky ground with energy industry insiders after some comments he made regarding hydraulic fracturing.

In an interview with Denver-based channel KUSA, Trump was quoted saying, “I’m in favor of fracking, but I think that voters should have a big say in it … I mean, there’s some areas, maybe, they don’t want to have fracking. And I think if the voters are voting for it, that’s up to them.”

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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) hopes to significantly decrease the average wait time on permit approval with a newly proposed online system. Announced at the end of July, the proposal aims to speed up the process for oil and gas drilling permits on federal and Indian land. Currently, incoming permit applications are down 40 percent from their historical average, a downturn that’s attributed to the hugely depleted price for oil and gas. In spite of these dips, however, the permit process is extremely long for companies hoping to explore new drilling projects.

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