In Colorado, yesterday, local control beat out oil and gas company money in three out of four towns with fracking questions on the ballot. The Coloradans living in those communities sent a very clear message to the oil and gas industry, they aren’t able to buy special treatment, particularly when that treatment puts peoples’ air, water and land at risk.
At the heart of the elections in Boulder, Lafayette, Fort Collins and Broomfield, even more so than how people feel about fracking, are these communities’ rights to determine what businesses are permitted within their borders. Go into any almost town in America, and plan to open up a new brick-and-mortar business and you’re going to have to deal with zoning issues. By fighting these community actions, oil and gas companies were essentially saying that they don’t want to play by the same rules as every other sort of business.
This my-way-or-the-highway approach is, unfortunately, pretty standard for the oil and gas industry. And, it’s propagated when people like Gov. John Hickenlooper decide to support oil and gas companies over the people living in cities and towns.
The good news is that more and more, people are beginning to take action to let oil and gas companies know that they won’t be walked over. That, no matter how many politicians might support them, everyday people are going to stand up for themselves, and use the power of the ballot to protect their local control, and their air, water and land resources.
The oil and gas industry is going to start to have to work with communities and with public land managers to plan better, and choose drilling sites that are agreeable to all parties. They will have to come to the table and act as responsible partners in land use.
You need to only look at how the four battles in Colorado were resolved, yesterday.
In Boulder, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) donated $145,137 to the local pro-fracking group to fight the extension of the local moratorium. Local control won out, with about 75 percent of voters choosing the extension.
In Fort Collins, COGA gave $397,134 to the pro-fracking group, Fort Collins Alliance for Reliable Energy. The local control advocates, Citizens for a Healthy Fort Collins had only $4,799, but still managed to win with 55 percent of the vote. Finally, in Lafayette, COGA reported $76,248.49 in total donations to local pro-fracking efforts, but local control still won with 57 percent of the vote.
In Broomfield, where the oil and gas companies spent over $230,000 to fight a moratorium on fracking, they managed to win with 51 percent of the vote. Not a great return on investment, since the pro-local control group only had $10,000 in their budget.
Pundits on both sides of the debate have claimed that these local battles are a litmus test on fracking itself. But there is strong evidence that they’re missing the overall point. Similar actions are happening in communities across the country. Texas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Maryland, just to name a few, all have cities and towns that rising up to protect their local control.
Oil and gas companies need to learn a lesson from these electoral fights, that the days of throwing a lot of money at a problem and it going away, are over. People will protect their local authority, as well as the safety of their air, water and land.
Until then, they’re going to continue to face these local battles. And if past truly is prologue, in the majority of them, they’re going to lose.