Opinion
By Peter Moore
09/05/2014 09:22:59 AM MDT
A lot can happen in a year - or even in a few months. For public officials, being able to adapt to current events and an ever-changing political environment is critical. Getting stuck in a singular mindset about complicated issues can be a real detriment to successfully governing.
Consider, for example, the recent decision by the Longmont City Council to appeal a ruling by a Boulder County judge that overturned the city’s ban on hydraulic fracturing. In the last nine months, so much has changed in the debate over fracking, that Longmont’s decision is - to say the least - puzzling.
In December 2013, voters in communities across Colorado had just approved bans on energy development, and all the momentum was with the fractivists. With drilling banned in these communities, the next step seemed to be a statewide march.
But that was December 2013, and when it comes to fracking, at least, everything has changed.
In June, the city of Loveland considered its own fracking ban, modeled closely after those that had passed in Boulder and Ft. Collins at the end of 2013. The Loveland measure was defeated in what has become a watershed moment in the debate over energy development in Colorado. When armed with the facts about fracking, voters realized the oil and gas industry is too important to the state and the country to drive it away with energy bans.
After Loveland, the tide had suddenly turned on the anti-fracking movement. Rep. Jared Polis, who was funding statewide ballot initiatives that would have given government control over private property and cost billions in litigation and compensation claims, faced immense pressure to withdraw his measures.
The pro-energy coalition Vital for Colorado, which boasts over 2,800 members, made a direct plea on behalf of the broader business community that Polis stand down. At the final hour, Polis capitulated and pulled his initiatives. On the heels of the Loveland vote, this was a more sensible choice than risk a loss at the ballot box and possible damage to the election chances of fellow Democrats.
Around the same time Polis backed down, judges across Colorado started throwing out the energy bans adopted in November 2013 and before. In July, a judge ruled that the Longmont ban conflicted with existing state law. In August, a judge threw out the fracking ban in Fort Collins. The message from the courts became clear: local governments do not have the authority to prohibit what the state permits.
Yet, Longmont - the forerunner of the flagging fight to kill energy production in Colorado - isn’t throwing in the towel. Ironically, the day after Longmont decided to press on in its anti-fossil fuel crusade, still another judge dealt another lethal blow to frack banners by overturning the ban in Lafayette. This marked the third fracking ban tossed out in the span of just one month.
As elected officials, it is no surprise members of the Longmont City Council would bend with the political winds. Unfortunately for the Longmont City Council, those winds have changed direction since December 2013.
Longmont has already spent nearly $130,000 defending its fracking ban, and to continue this fight would cost an estimated $75,000 to $150,000 more. Considering the city isn’t likely to experience a different outcome, wasting even more taxpayer money would be ill advised. The city should concede that state law does, in fact, apply to them too and put this legal fight behind them.
Peter T. Moore is a senior partner at the Denver office of the Polsinelli law firm. He is the board chairman of Vital for Colorado which is a group of individuals and businesses supporting “Colorado’s longstanding history of responsible oil and gas development.” He lives in Denver.
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