The Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environmental doused an activist fire brewing up in Broomfield over potential oil and gas development in the area with…wait for it…science. That’s right. A new study that the CDPHE dropped at a hearing in Broomfield last week received little fanfare, but served up the devastating news that fractivists are protesting for nothing.
The landmark health assessment found that “the risk of harmful health effects is low for residents living [near] oil and gas operations,” and that “results from exposure and health effect studies do not indicate the need for immediate public health action.”
Boom.
According to an Energy in Depth article, the CDPHE’s head of environmentl epidemiology Dr. Mike Van Dyke, who in science nerd drama replaced debunked “scientist” Lisa McKenzie at the hearing, underscored the science behind the assessment’s data:
“This isn’t cherry-picked air sampling data. This is all air sampling data.”
Pssst. Ms. McKenzie, when Van Dyke is referencing “cherry-picked” data, he is referring to your data in a polite way. McKenzie is best known for her study with flawed data that tried (desperately) to show a link between oil and gas development and birth defects. Her data and study were widely panned, leading to charges of fear mongering.
Now that science has demonstrated that oil and gas development poses no legitimate threat to public health, the only question left for fractivists is how they’ll earn a living. You know, since they can’t raise money off of fear mongering.