Longmont signs regional oil, gas statement

Several northern Colorado governments are being asked to join an effort to ask the state to write better oil and gas regulatory standards, according to a report in the Longmont Times-Call.

Longmont City Council members voted unanimously on Tuesday night to sign a letter, proposed and drafted by Broomfield, to Gov. John Hickenlooper and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

The letter says to the governor and the state regulatory agency “that we are united,” said Longmont councilwoman Polly Christensen. “It says to them, we’re concerned and we’re going to stay that way,”  Christensen was quoted in the Times-Call report.

Broomfield also has invited Adams County, Lafayette, Boulder, Boulder County, Thornton, Westminster, Fort Collins, Louisville and Erie to co-sign the letter.

State Rep. Mike Foote, the Lafayette Democrat who represents part of Longmont and has been unsuccessful in getting several oil-and-gas measures passed into law, encouraged the Longmont City Council to sign the regional governments’ letter.

Foote said the bottom line is that local communities “should be able to say no” to oil and gas operations within their boundaries.

The Longmont council also heard from audience members who wanted additional steps to be taken, including a new fracking ban that the state Supreme Court had already ruled to be illegal, and a Community Bill of Rights that would supercede state regulations.

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