Gov. Hickenlooper aiding and abetting billion dollar oil and gas industry...
Gov. Hickenlooper aiding and abetting billion dollar oil and gas industry to cheat rules that protect public health and water
Over the past few weeks alone Gov. Hickenlooper has done the bidding of the billion dollar oil and gas industry, to the detriment of Coloradan’s health and water, enough times to make one wonder: just who does he believe he was elected to serve?
Late last week, Gov. Hickenlooper sent his lobbyist to the Capitol to weaken fines for oil and gas spills.
Colorado has the lowest fines in the nation for spills, despite a well-documented problem of spills and water contamination. You don’t have to look much further than the recent Parachute spill for evidence, now on day 53, which has contaminated nearby water and soil with cancer causing benzene and is being investigated by the EPA’s criminal investigations division. Right now, the most that these billion dollar oil and gas companies can fined for breaking the law when they spill is $10,000 - hardly a slap on the wrist and definitely not an incentive to follow the law.
Earlier this year, Hickenlooper’s oil and gas commission created the Anadarko-Noble loophole, which makes it easier for billion dollar oil and gas companies to pollute water in an area along the Front Range that’s home to more than 25 percent of Colorado’s oil and gas wells and more than half of the most recent spills reported. All eyes are now on the Colorado State Legislature to see if legislation sponsored by Rep. Hullinghorst to overturn the Anadarko-Noble loophole will pass, and avoid a Hickenlooper veto.
...read the rest
http://coloradopols.com/diary/41334/gov-hickenlooper-aiding-and-abetting-billion-dollar-oil-and-gas-industry-to-cheat-rules-that-protect-public-health-and-water
This is just damned depressing!
