Boulder County Activists Pledge to Continue to Fight Fracking

A moratorium on oil and gas drilling in Boulder County expired May 1, after the County Commissioners conceded a week earlier that state laws continue to supersede local laws in the courts and fighting those laws has proven fruitless and expensive. But local groups aren’t ready to quit the fight against fracking. KGNU’s Roz Brown spoke with the organizer of a Pearl Street Mall meditation activity designed to make sure people know oil and gas drilling could be coming to their neighborhood.

Kritee, with Boulder’s EcoDharma Sangha is concerned that not enough Boulderites know the sanctions against oil and gas have been lifted. EcoDharma’s slogan, “Open Space Will Be Fracked, Unless You Act,” was displayed on signs at the meditation. The group did not want to pick sides but instead chose a meditation path with weekly practices planned including one at the Chautauqua trailhead on Sunday, May 7, beginning at 10 a.m.

The fight to prevent fracking was the reason behind the temporary ban on new oil and gas wells imposed by Boulder County for more than five years. Kristen McLean with Boulder County Protectors was waiting in the courthouse hallway after last week’s meeting with flyers to promote that group’s ongoing anti-fracking effort.

“The County Commissioners reviewed scientific studies that show Boulder County staff have gone and found existing wells that are leaking and they come back after they’re supposed to be fixed and they’re not,” said McLean. “Some of these sites only have to be checked once in their lifetime, so when they say they can be safely regulated that is not true.”

With the moratorium rescinded the County will need to review its first application from Crestone Peak Resources a company that wants to drill 216 wells on 12 acres in east Boulder County. Boulder County Protectors would like to see the Commissioners follow in the City of Lafayette’s footsteps and pass a Climate Bill of Rights.

“We want the Bill of Rights to say we have a right to a healthy climate and nothing can take that right away,” said McLean. “This is just one approach to ban fracking because we’ve run out of legislative options. There are no politicians in Colorado who will take a public stand on fracking so we’re taking a stand by trying to pass the Climate Bill of Rights. People think open space is protected and it’s not.”

The Boulder County Protectors group will meet to discuss the Climate Bill of Rights, on May 2 at Boulder’s Unity Church, beginning at 6 p.m. and on May 4 at Lafayette’s East Simpson Coffee Shop at 6 p.m.

On Saturday, May 6, a free conference called ‘Get the Frack Facts’ will be held at Longmont’s Front Range Community College beginning at 8:30 a.m. Find out more about these and other events at KGNU’s Resistance Radio calendar.

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