THIRD TIME’S A CHARM: Rulemaking Examining Greater Local Control

Someone please take away this guy’s mic

First, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis tried a ballot initiative that would have granted local control to cities and counties who hoped to ban fracking.  That failed after his own political party punished him again for being a baby about a fracking rig on his neighbor’s property. In a compromise, Polis and his fractivists attempted to stack the deck on the oil and gas task force with fractivists, only to later declare the oil and gas task force an utter failure after the task force didn’t recommend what Polis wanted it to recommend.  Now, fractivists (and we have to assume Polis) are trying a third time to enact local control through the rulemaking process, according to the Denver Business Journal. Here’s what the DBJ reported:

“Those two recommendations were hailed by some on the oil and gas task force for requiring more communication between companies and local officials, and hopefully avoid controversy over new wells near homes and schools. But others on the task force said the recommendations didn’t go far enough because the final decision on where to put a well or support facility still rests with the state — not the local officials.”

So far, there are no dates, but the regulatory body that oversees oil and gas development for the state, the COGCC, named a few locations – Brighton, Broomfield, somewhere in Weld County, Western Slope and LaPlata County. It should be no surprise that the meetings will be held in fractivist hot zones like Broomfield where fractivists can turn out their activists.

While some have described the appetite for a 2016 ballot initiative as subsided, a renewed effort to enact “local control” could be just the opening act for a 2016 ballot.