{"id":105331,"date":"2016-05-03T16:23:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T22:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-fracking-bans-struck-down-by-colorado-high-court\/"},"modified":"2016-05-03T16:23:53","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T22:23:53","slug":"local-fracking-bans-struck-down-by-colorado-high-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-fracking-bans-struck-down-by-colorado-high-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Local fracking bans struck down by Colorado high court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center in downtown Denver houses the state Supreme Court. The high court on Monday ruled that two local measures to curb fracking were unconstitutional.<\/span>Courtesy Colorado State Judicial Branch<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday dealt a blow to hydraulic fracturing critics, striking down efforts to curb the controversial practice in local communities.<\/p>\n

The ruling paves the way for statewide ballot initiatives that would allow local governments to enact rules and regulations that overstep the state\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n

The issue does not directly impact La Plata County, where there is no ban or moratorium on oil and gas drilling activities. But it stands to guide future actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Supreme Court\u2019s decision does not mean that the local control issue is going away,\u201d said La Plata County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt, a Democrat. \u201cLocal governments need the ability to plan and ensure that oil and gas development occurs away from schools and neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some observers say the ruling reaffirmed local governments\u2019 land-use authority, since it stated only that bans and moratoriums interfere with the state\u2019s rule-making.<\/p>\n

La Plata County in 1992 had a stake in determining that authority, when the Supreme Court upheld the county\u2019s authority to regulate land-use impacts of oil and gas development.<\/p>\n

In separate unanimous written rulings Monday, the Supreme Court declared a fracking ban in Longmont and a moratorium in Fort Collins illegal, stating that the voter-approved actions conflict with state law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling sends a strong message that bans are not the way we do business in Colorado,\u201d said Christi Zeller, executive director of the La Plata County Energy Council.<\/p>\n

She underscored that La Plata and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission have \u201crobust\u201d rules that have been re-written dozens of times over several decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is political decisions take away private property rights, they restrict and hinder business, and they disrupt the economy, here in La Plata County, and in other counties and cities in the state,\u201d Zeller said.<\/p>\n

Bruce Baizel, a Durango-based energy program director for Earthworks, called the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling disappointing, but not surprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of pushes things back into the political realm in terms of initiatives,\u201d Baizel said. \u201cThey (the Supreme Court) explicitly said it doesn\u2019t matter if drilling or fracking negatively impacts residents, and the state has decided it\u2019s not going to address that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Richard L. Gabriel, who wrote the court\u2019s opinion, said justices were not charged with weighing the economic advantages or health risks associated with fracking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case \u2026 does not require us to weigh in on these differences of opinion, much less to try to resolve them,\u201d Gabriel wrote.<\/p>\n

Groups are readying ballot initiatives for November that run the gamut, including allowing local governments to ban fracking and increasing the distance of well setbacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes absolute sense that it would strengthen those folks\u2019 resolve to get a measure on the ballot,\u201d Lachelt said of the ruling.<\/p>\n

She co-chaired a task force that convened in 2014 to address the local control issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve expressed my disappointment that the task force didn\u2019t adequately deal with the issues,\u201d Lachelt said. \u201cBut just because we have a Supreme Court ruling doesn\u2019t make this issue go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat who convened the task force as part of a compromise to avoid ballot initiatives at the time, defended the work of the panel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work of the task force amplified the role of local governments in siting large oil and gas facilities and built a stronger connection between state and local regulators,\u201d the governor said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, a Republican, doubts the high court\u2019s ruling will quell controversy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear today\u2019s ruling will not end this divisive debate and instead some activists will continue to push anti-development initiatives undermining the state\u2019s record of local cooperation on these policy issues,\u201d Coffman said.<\/p>\n

Lauren Petrie, regional director of Food and Water Watch \u2013 which helped with several initiatives across the state \u2013 said much of the opposition is just beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision deals a devastating blow not just to Longmont residents, but to all Coloradans who have been stripped of a democratic process that should allow us the right to protect our health, safety and property from the impacts of this dangerous industrial activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lachelt: Ruling does not mean control issue will vanish from La Plata County<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[94,875,4105,13,221,1374],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-105331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-energy-and-resource","tag-fracking","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gas-and-oil","tag-litigation-and-regulation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105331"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=105331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}