By The Denver Post Editorial Board
Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015 - 9:08 a.m.
Crews remove a wall around a drilling pad next in Erie on Jan. 6. Despite a lack of drilling in Denver city limits, the Don't Frack Denver campaign seeks to prevent hydraulic fracturing in Denver. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)
Let's be honest about what the new Don't Frack Denver campaign is up to. Its members may talk about a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in Denver, but the city is hardly a hotbed of oil and gas development to begin with, with Denver International Airport being the only location where any well has been drilled in recent years.
Nor are there, apparently, any plans afoot for drilling in Denver near residential areas.
So what does the campaign have in mind if not the equivalent of a ban on drilling? As it happens, such a ban would be illegal under existing readings of Colorado law and its constitution — and will remain so until courts rule otherwise. Longmont is appealing a court ruling that threw out its own fracking ban, but faces long odds.
There isn't any mystery about the motives of those behind the Don't Frack Denver campaign. For example, Food & Water Watch, which is helping to spearhead the campaign that was kicked off Tuesday, is a national group dedicated to opposing fracking and drilling wherever it can — whether near urban areas or not. And the Don't Frack Denver campaign if rife with similar groups.
We've supported many efforts in recent years to strengthen rules governing oil and gas development. Most recently, they include a state task force that concludes its work this month and will offer proposals to the legislature.
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The panel's ideas won't satisfy everyone, but they'll represent the latest installment of a thoughtful ramping up of protections — a process that has attempted to balance legitimate complaints about nearby energy extraction with the resource owners' property rights.
By contrast, comprehensive opposition to fracking, the demonization of industry, and the trumpeting of a study that the state's own health department felt obliged to repudiate are not a responsible contribution to the debate. Officials in Denver, whose downtown is home to a significant concentration of energy-related offices, would be wise to steer clear of this effort.
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