Moratorium on oil and gas drilling is extended in Boulder County

“The County Commissioners can declare a state of emergency in Boulder County, if they do that they don’t need any rules or regulations.”

Boulder County’s moratorium on oil and gas development in unincorporated parts of the county was due to expire on Friday November 18th. The County Commissioners held a lengthy public hearing on Tuesday November 15th and voted to extend the moratorium until January 31st. The temporary emergency moratorium is to give county staff time to start studying and preparing possible additions to the latest draft version of updated oil and gas development regulations the commissioners want in place before they start accepting applications for drilling oil and gas wells.

A capacity crowd packed the hearing room yesterday with about another 100 people outside in the hallway. The meeting happened while a NO DAPL solidarity rally took place outside the courthouse building.

The first 3 speakers to testify yesterday were from the fracking industry, but the majority of other
testimonies came from people asking the Commissioners to extend the moratorium on fracking.

Boulder residents Kristin McLean and Karen Conduff urged the commissioners to extend the moratorium.

Moratorium on oil and gas drilling is extended in Boulder County KGNU News

Rod Brueske of Longmont asked the county commissioners to consider declaring a state of emergency as a way to avoid the legal consequences of a moratorium on fracking.

“I went on the State of Colorado’s Homeland Security website and Boulder County Commissioners have the ability to declare a state of emergency. We’re looking at global emissions that are off the charts…ice sheets ready to drop off…we can’t even contain our ozone levels here on the Front Range, so the County Commissioners can declare a state of emergency in Boulder County, if they do that they don’t need any rules or regulations.”