Energy companies spend big to fight Colorado ballot initiatives
Source: Reuters
World | Thu Jul 14, 2016 4:21pm EDT
Energy companies spend big to fight Colorado ballot initiatives
HOUSTON | BY LIZ HAMPTON
Energy companies in Colorado are spending millions of dollars to derail a push by environmentalists to put measures on November's ballot that would stifle oil and gas drilling in the state, according to a Reuters review of campaign finance records.
Environmental groups are now gathering signatures for two statewide initiatives that would transfer regulatory control of oil and gas development to local governments and create more stringent setback requirements to keep oil and gas activities away from occupied structures.
The state's Supreme Court this year struck down fracking bans approved by voters in the cities of Fort Collins and Longmont.
A study by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, a state agency tasked with encouraging energy development, found that 90 percent of the surface acreage in Colorado would be unavailable for oil and gas development under the new setback laws, which would require all new development facilities to be 2,500 feet from occupied structures and areas of interest, such as parks.
In the last three months alone, energy companies including Anadarko Petroleum Corp, Noble Energy and Whiting Petroleum, have together donated more than $6.7 million to Protect Colorado, a industry-backed coalition fighting the initiatives, according to a Reuters analysis of campaign finance disclosures.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-fracking-colorado-vote-idUSKCN0ZU2FF
