{"id":27613,"date":"2017-11-04T14:28:36","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T19:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=27613"},"modified":"2017-11-04T14:28:36","modified_gmt":"2017-11-04T19:28:36","slug":"fossil-fuel-dollars-flow-into-local-elections-threatening-development-in-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=27613","title":{"rendered":"Fossil Fuel Dollars Flow into Local Elections Threatening Development in the West"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2017\/11\/04\/fossil-fuel-dollars-flow-local-elections-broomfield-spokane\">Fossil Fuel Dollars Flow into Local Elections Threatening Development in the West<\/a><\/h3>\n<article class=\"node-12270 node node-blog node-promoted view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/colorado-kid-fracking-school-sign-2012_credit-Brett-Rindt_creative-commons.jpg?itok=rwTSgZit\" alt=\"A child holds a hand-drawn sign protesting fracking near his school in Colorado\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"new-horizontal-social-bar clearfix\">This election season, cities in Colorado and Washington are proving to be battlegrounds for community groups pushing to locally restrict oil, gas, and coal development. And in both places, the fossil fuel industry has been pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into making sure that doesn\u2019t\u00a0happen.<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>In Colorado, the drilling boom that accompanied hydraulic fracturing (\u201cfracking\u201d) is coming under increasing scrutiny, especially in the wake of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2017\/05\/26\/anadarko-depressed-stock-colorado-explosion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">several lethal accidents in frontline communities<\/a>. On November 7, Broomfield, a large town between Denver and Boulder, will vote on a charter amendment that would require oil and gas development to safeguard the environment and \u201cnot adversely impact the health, safety, and welfare of Broomfield&#8217;s\u00a0residents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The citizen-initiated charter amendment, Question 301, reiterates a Colorado Court of Appeals ruling from earlier this year, which some say changes the mandate of the state regulatory commission in charge of oil and gas. Following a lawsuit by Colorado teen Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/05\/18\/hickenlooper-orders-halt-oil-gas-ruling-fight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">court ruled in March<\/a> that safeguarding public health and the environment was indeed \u201ca condition that must be fulfilled\u201d prior to oil and gas\u00a0drilling.<\/p>\n<p>This decision was a stark divergence from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission\u2019s long-held stance that the commission only had to \u201cbalance\u201d health and the environment, with its mandate to facilitate fossil fuel\u00a0extraction.<\/p>\n<p>A campaign to defeat Broomfield\u2019s charter amendment has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailycamera.com\/news\/ci_31391341\/broomfield-oil-and-gas-ballot-issue-301-attracts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">received over<\/a> $344,000 in contributions from the industry. The Colorado Petroleum Council \u2014 a local chapter of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/american-petroleum-institute\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American Petroleum Institute<\/a> \u2014 is involved with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/Vote%20No%20on%20301%20Report%20of%20Contributions%20and%20Expenditures%2010172017.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">suite of campaign activities against it<\/a>, including phone outreach, direct mailing, polling, data, digital outreach, and online\u00a0advertising.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters of Question 301, meanwhile, have so far raised about\u00a0$7,000.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fossil Fuel Dollars Flow into Local Elections Threatening Development in the West This election season, cities in Colorado and Washington are proving to be battlegrounds for community groups pushing to locally restrict oil, gas, and coal development. And in both places, the fossil fuel industry has been pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into making [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[5317,253,327,331,16862,16126],"class_list":["post-27613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-liberty","tag-desmog-blog","tag-elections","tag-fossil-fuel-industry","tag-fracking","tag-local-politics","tag-simon-davis-cohen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27614,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27613\/revisions\/27614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}