Fracking Protests Heat Up

Guns, Hispanic student tuition and gay rights may just be a warm-up for the battle about to begin at the Colorado State Legislature.

Conservatives won the ground game, but mostly lost the war over guns with their battalion of members, car rallies and e-mails. Now, it’s the left’s turn. Demonstrations are being mounted around the Capitol. “Hey hey, ho ho, fracking has got to go” is aimed at Gov. Hickenlooper and some moderate Democratic legislators.

A host of bills have been introduced, some significantly upending the state regulatory process, others clearly aimed at simply stopping all fracking.

Hickenlooper would like to find a compromise, but it won’t be easy. Fracking unites the entire environmental left with local NIBYS who simply don’t want the impact of oil and gas exploration near their homes. Anti-growth, climate change, water pollution, pro-renewables, you name it, fracking is attracting the full spectrum of environmental issue advocates with an army of protestors.

This battle reflects the fact natural gas has become plentiful and cheap.  It is rapidly replacing coal as the main energy source for electrical generation.  The upside is profound:

• Americans could become energy independent
• American manufacturing is gaining a price advantage due to lower-priced energy
• Natural gas reduces the dependence on coal and lowers carbon emissions
• Gas and oil development are leading the recovery, and the industry is very advantageous for Colorado’s employment and local and state tax revenue

With the liberal tilt of this legislature and the anti-fracking grassroots legions, the Governor and industry will be very busy.