UPDATE: Loveland State Rep. Brian DelGrosso today dove into the fracking fight with his own call to arms against Loveland’s Question 1:
“Loveland has become the pivotal national battleground in the fight between extreme environmental groups and people like us – people who believe in the need for an “all of the above” energy policy and the need for greater energy independence,” DelGrosso said in calls being made to local voters.
This morning, The National Review laid out what is at stake in the Loveland fracking fight – will fracking divide the Democratic radical enviros from the so-called Democratic establishment?
Loveland voters will decide next week on a ballot initiative that would place a moratorium on fracking within the city limits. Here is what The National Review writer Jillian Melchior, wrote about the fight:
“Meanwhile, local as it is, the Loveland vote will remain a crucial bellwether, determining the extent to which outside donors, as well as Colorado’s divided Democrats, will support or disavow natural-gas development.”
Former Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Floyd Ciruli, calling Colorado “ground zero for a great hydrocarbon battle in the country.” And, he’s right.
Last night, The Denver Post rightly called out the so-called Loveland moratorium asking:
“When is a proposed moratorium on oil and gas drilling really not a moratorium at all but an excuse to ban such operations for a couple of years?
The answer: When the ballot question claims the moratorium would be put in place in order to ‘fully study the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on property values and human health,’ as Question 1 now facing voters in Loveland says.
Obviously Loveland is not equipped to ‘fully study’ the impacts of fracking, and in fact the proposal does nothing to promote or fund the necessary research.”
Loveland voters would do well to recognize this ballot initiative for what it is – a ban on fracking and a Tonya Harding-style blow to the knees of Loveland’s economy.