On November 6th, 2012 the people of the City of Longmont, Colorado passed an amendment to the city charter banning hydraulic fracturing (Fracking) within city limits. The ballot initiative was known as measure 300. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has helped sue the city for restricting oil and gas activity before and has vowed to repeat himself. Hickenlooper's ardent support for the oil and gas industry has given him the nickname Governor Frackenlooper. His position also makes me suspicious of his motives and for the murky circumstances of his Democratic predecessor Governor Bill Ritter stepping down.
Watch in the video below as the people of Longmont chant "Dirty water, dirty air. we get sick and you don't care" at Governor Hickenlooper as he leaves the city in September 2012. During this visit the Governor said the passage of fracking ban 300 would bring a second lawsuit from the State.
I am curious to see the Governor's next move. As a native Western New Yorker I hope Hickenlooper looks to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for guidance on this precarious environmental and economic issue. As I understand the current legal situation in New York there is a state-wide moratorium in place against fracking and Cuomo has left the decision up to municipalities whether to allow fracking to occur if the moratorium should happen to be lifted. I plead with state representatives Randy Fischer and John Kefalas to urge Governor Hickenlooper to take a similar stance on Fracking in Colorado.
