Oil & Gas

The Pratt Temporary Completions Area, October 2017

Put simply, my position on unconventional oil & gas exploration is that it is incompatible with residential development; we must put an end to residential drilling.

The True Cost of Hydraulic Fracturing

When I engage residents, other elected officials, and media representatives on the topic of oil & gas, I often find myself returning to several statements:

• The practice of hydraulic fracturing will come to an end when we as a society come to understand its true cost. For the sake of my children and our community, my goal is to further our collective understanding of these costs.
• If we only treated unconventional oil & gas exploration like we do every other industry, the practice of residential drilling would cease to exist. Taxpayers should not be burdened with the problems of orphaned wells, air quality monitoring, and other impacts of unconventional oil & gas exploration. We insist that residential development pay its own way, it’s time to demand the same from this industry.

A Just and Equitable Transition to Renewables

I believe in a just transition from fossil fuels to carbon-free renewables; I’ll vigorously support programs that ensure the workers that have given so much to heat our homes, fuel our cars, and ensure our energy independence can transfer their skills to other industries. The Build Back Better Act includes provisions to do so.

Senator Bernie Sanders said it well, in the press release that introduced H.R. 5867, the Ban Fracking Act:

“We must realize that workers in the fracking fields are not the enemy, coal miners are not the enemy, and oil rig workers are not the enemy. Climate change is the enemy. As we transition to 100% renewable energy, we must come together to ensure a just transition for all fossil fuel workers,” said Sanders. “Fracking is a danger to our water supply. It’s a danger to the air we breathe, it has resulted in more earthquakes, and it’s highly explosive. To top it all off, it’s contributing to climate change. If we are serious about clean air and drinking water, if we are serious about combating climate change, the only safe and sane way to move forward is to ban fracking nationwide.”

In The News

See below for recent news coverage that provides additional evidence that extractive industries are not only accelerating our path towards climate disaster, they also prove to be financially unsustainable:

• 43% of CO Oil and Gas Companies Exclusively Own Inactive, Leaky Wells: The majority of the 50,000 oil & gas wells in Colorado are uneconomic.
• New Report: Fracking with “Forever Chemicals” in Colorado: A new study exposing the use and risks of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in oil and gas wells in Colorado, which includes a map of wells that use these chemicals.
• Xcel Energy supports gas industry group pushing false claims in Colorado: A gas industry group is spreading false claims about electric heating costs.
• Sponsor of SB19-181 Releases New Report Indicating that COGCC Has Not Properly Safeguarded Health, Safety, the Environment, and Wildlife.: The implementation of SB19-181 has not fulfilled its intent to properly safeguard residents’ right to clean air.
• Colorado to request $25M in federal aid to help clean up its more than 1,200 orphan wells: Yet more evidence that extractive industries are financially unsustainable; the state has been burdened with the cleanup of thousands of orphaned wells.