Colorado Supreme Court to hear Longmont, Fort Collins fracking-ban appeals

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear the fracking-ban appeals of both Longmont and Fort Collins.

The court set separate case numbers for each appeal, though no indication has been given yet as to whether the two will be heard separately or together.

Longmont’s case concerns a 2012 voter-imposed ban on the practice of hydraulic fracturing, while Fort Collins’ case covers a five-year moratorium placed on fracking by that city’s voters in 2013. Both bans were struck down last summer by district court judges in Boulder and Larimer counties, respectively, with those courts concluding that the resolutions were pre-empted by state law. Those decisions prompted the cities’ appeals.

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The next step in the process is for the Supreme Court to set briefing schedules. After that, the cities in each case will file opening briefs, followed by answer briefs from the respondents, which in both cases includes the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. Once all briefs are filed, including amicus briefs from third parties, the court will set a date for oral arguments and make its decision sometime after the hearing.

The Colorado Court of Appeals earlier this summer had asked the state’s high court to hear the cases rather than considering them itself. The appeals court had noted several reasons, including the high amount of public interest in the cases given oil and gas development’s major role in the state’s economy. Multiple other municipalities in the state besides just Longmont and Fort Collins have enacted limits or bans on fracking, which involves pumping water mixed with sand and chemicals into a drilled hole to retrieve oil and natural gas from shale deep underground.

Given the number of cities trying to limit or ban fracking and the potential for more such cases, the appeals court stated that a ruling from the higher court would conserve substantial public and private resources by providing some finality on the issue.

The Colorado Supreme Court’s case announcement on Monday summarized the issue to be considered in the same way for both the Longmont and Fort Collins cases, which was, “Whether home-rule cities are pre-empted from promulgating local land-use regulations that prohibit the use of hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas operations and the storage of such waste products within city limits when the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission regulates hydraulic fracturing within the state.”