The North Front Range has become a battleground with state
and national consequences. The anti-hydrocarbon environmental movement has joined
in a powerful union with local residents concerned about normal NIMBY issues of
traffic, noise, dust, water and air pollution and aesthetics that accompany any
major industrial expansion – in this case, gas and oil development. Together
they have defeated expensive gas and oil campaigns to pass bans and moratoriums
in four North Front Range cities. And now they are gathering signatures for a
statewide ballot initiative that could ban gas and oil exploration in large
sections of production areas.
A fix, which would give local residents more control over
their land use, is being overridden by the ideological forces that see benefit
in a November ballot battle. This will be an existential battle over the future
of gas and oil production in Colorado, and the outcome is uncertain.
Along with Washington
Post and New York Times, the conservative
press and networks are drilling down on the implications for Democratic
politics from a fracking ban in the November election. Much of the party
establishment wants regulation, but not bans, and most of the party grassroots
and environmental left want to limit natural gas production as much as possible.
The next confrontation will be primary night in Loveland as
voters get to vote on the latest indefinite fracking moratorium.
Jillian Kay Melchior in the National Review Online carries
the latest view, “Fracking Fracas in Loveland,” June 17, 2014.
Floyd Ciruli, a Denver-based independent political
consultant, calls Colorado “ground zero for a great hydrocarbon battle in the
country.” The Loveland vote, he says, will test whether environmentalists can
gain by pursuing strategic local-level restrictions against fracking. But these
local votes, paired with proposed state-level ballot-initiative efforts, have
created a major fault line among Colorado Democrats.
“The
Democratic party is tremendously divided,” Ciruli explains. “That’s the gist of
the problem here for the Democrats. Probably the rank and file oppose fracking…but
the Democratic-party establishment is mostly in favor of it, including the
governor, who is strongly in favor of it.”
“This is really an internal Democratic-party fight, which I
think they’re worried could go into the election and cause the governor and
maybe Udall a lot of controversy,” Ciruli says. “They would end up being out of
alignment with their base, which is environmentalist.”
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