“THE REAL KILLER”
by David Wojick, Ph.D., ©2018, CFACT
(Nov. 11, 2018) — The good news is that the fracking-killing Proposition 112 did not pass, but the bad news is that it got 43% of the votes, which in political terms is a lot. Let-wing politicians see this near victory as a mandate for change. The ugly news is that the new Governor is a radical green and the Democrats now control both houses in the legislature. This likely adds up to a green energy wave coming in Colorado.
There is no question that some sort of fracking-limiting action will now be taken. The questions are by whom and how bad will it be? There is already an offset rule on fracking operations, basically 500 feet from homes and 1000 from big things like schools. Proposition 112 would have increased this to a whopping 2500 feet, plus including a host of natural features, all the way up to intermittent streams, which was the real killer.
Jared Polis, the new Democrat Governor, opposed 112 but his regulatory people enforce the existing offset rule. They can probably change the offset rule without legislation, just as EPA can change federal standards.
Polis is a radical green, who has called for Colorado to become 100% renewable in power generation by 2040, even faster than California’s absurd 2045 goal. No friend to fossil fuels, he is very likely to support increasing the restrictions on fracking.
On the legislative side, the Republican Senate has been a brake on anti-fracking bills passed by the House, but that brake is now off. Colorado is now completely controlled by Democrats. Given the big vote for 112, new laws on fracking are almost inevitable.
One hopes that whatever does happen will at least be bearable. Increasing the setback from homes to 1000 feet and that from schools to 2500 would probably be okay, provided the land-covering natural features are not included. It might also be politically acceptable to the radicals, because the political pressure comes from the suburbs. Streams were never an issue; in fact they were never mentioned in the news coverage.
Read the rest here.