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You have to admire the skills of the propaganda ministry
of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association and the Colorado
Petroleum Association. Last week they paid for a full-page
ad in many Colorado newspapers with the alarming headline:
Certain species are covered. People are not.
There we learn that Colorado's oil and gas boom is
driving Colorado's economy.
Actually, 90 percent of the
drilling is in just seven counties: Garfield, Weld, Mesa,
Rio Blanco, Yuma, La Plata and Las Animas. I've yet to see
a bit of evidence that the boom is driving the economy of,
say, Chaffee or Custer County, and the last time I checked,
we were all still in Colorado.
The industry shills are upset about a proposed
regulation to protect wildlife by forbidding drilling in
certain areas at certain times of the year, like mating and
birthing seasons. It could shut down 30% of Colorado's
drilling activities for three months every year in the
seasonal range of several species, including prairie
dogs.
Well, yes, it could, unless the drillers consulted with the Colorado Division of Wildlife and prepared comprehensive development plans. In other words, they could act responsibly.
Is that expecting too much? Under Colorado law, All
wildlife not lawfully acquired and held by private
ownership is declared to be the property of the state.
So, the state acts to protect public property, including
those pernicious prairie dogs, and it's doing something
evil? Would you say Go right ahead
to an industry
that proposed damaging your personal property? Likely not,
so why would you say that to an industry that wants to
damage property that we Coloradans hold in common?
But there is not a single word in the new
regulations,
we read, dealing with the impact of
these shutdowns on the 10,700 workers who will lose their
jobs and the local communities that will suffer.
Wait a minute. At worst they would be laid off for three
months before returning to work. They wouldn't lose
their jobs.
Here's a proposal: If the drillers are really so concerned about the welfare of affected workers and communities, why don't they guarantee long-term employment?
Instead, they're always threatening to leave the state unless we roll over for them.
Why should we?
They are not drilling to make sure Coloradans stay warm in the winter. For generations, long before the current boom, Colorado has produced more natural gas than it could consume. With the construction of new pipelines, natural gas can be exported to higher-paying markets. The current drilling boom is for gas to go to those markets, which also raises the price we have to pay. Just why our wildlife is supposed to be sacrificed for the benefit of natural-gas customers in California and the Midwest is a question the drillers have neither raised nor answered.
Further, the drillers skip around their damage to another public asset. The water of Colorado belongs to the people of Colorado. And thanks to gas drillers, various people of Colorado have found methane and benzene in their water.
Let's face it. The drillers are here for one purpose: To
make as much money as they can, as fast as they can, just
like the gold and silver mine owners of previous
generations. Whatever they say about how horrible it is
that local communities
might suffer
because
of regulations, the drillers will pull up stakes the moment
they can make more money drilling somewhere else.
If it's asking too much for them, in the process of sending Colorado natural gas to California, to follow some rules to protect our property -- our wildlife and our water -- then good-bye and good riddance, the sooner the better.
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