Earlier this week, a Food and Water Watch affiliate that was pushing the City of Broomfield to enact a fracking moratorium in response to a plan to frack parts of Broomfield lost its battle. The Broomfield City Council told the Keep It in the Ground groupies to go pound sand. According to Western Wire, the city councilmen had strong words for the fractivists who obviously walked to this meeting in the middle of suburban sprawl.

Here’s what Councilman Mike Shelton had to say in voting down the ban:

“A moratorium also is a statement against fracking in general. What it’s saying is that we don’t like the industry of fracking. …I think that’s [closer] to discrimination or prejudice than anything. Discrimination and prejudice, especially by a government, is completely immoral…. Relying on a ban is not a good solution.”

If that was the shot, here’s the chaser. As a way to bully the city councilmembers prior to the vote, the radical environmentalist group threatened to recall city councilmembers who voted against the moratorium. When pressed today on social media, even Democratic Representative Matt Gray marginalized that idea. And Gray is no Republican apologist to put it mildly. See the Twitter exchange below:

There you have it folks. Fractivists lost the fight to ban fracking in Broomfield and, then, Rep. Gray undermined any retaliatory effort they may have considered.

Game over.