The community groups behind Colorado Initiative 75 and 78 that would have placed restrictions on oil and gas production have just issued a statement that they will not challenge the Secretary of State’s ruling that the groups did not collect enough signatures to go to voters on November’s ballot. The statement cited that for one, the costs required to make a challenge led to their decision, “The grassroots groups supporting the initiatives determined that the costs and time involved would be too great to move forward with an appeal.” The measures would have allowed municipalities to regulate fracking and the other, Initiative 75 would have placed mandatory distances between fracking drills and sensitive areas such as schools, homes, and parks.
But the oil and gas industry still faces the backers of the measures who announced in the same press release that they will turn their focus and energy to fighting against fracking industry-backed Initiative 71 titled Raise the Bar. Initiative 71 would require citizen initiatives to come from signatures across the entire state, and would require a 55% vote instead of a majority vote to pass. Grassroots community groups say that the requirements would wipe out small community groups with little money to initiate measures because of the costs involved in canvassing an entire state.
The Colorado Secretary of State is reporting that Initiative 71 has received over $1 million in money to promote the measure including from the oil and gas industry calling themselves Protecting Colorado’s Environment, and Economy and Energy Independence that receive funding from the controversial oil and gas corporations Anadarko Petroleum and Nobel Energy. The community group Yes for Health and Safety who initiated measures 75 and 78 say that they were outspent 19 to 1 “depriving people of the opportunity to vote on fracking measures.”
“It has been incredibly inspiring to witness the passion and commitment of Coloradans who work against all odds to protect our communities and neighborhoods from the harms of fracking,” said Tricia Olson, Executive Director of Yes for Health and Safety Over Fracking. “We may have run out of time to make it onto this year’s ballot, but volunteers are working against 71 now and gearing up for the next round, because ultimately we have no choice but to keep fighting to protect our communities, state, and democracy itself. This is only the beginning.
“Make no mistake about it. Raise the Bar is an effort to prevent future initiatives designed to protect communities from fracking,” said Razz Gormley of Frack Free Colorado. “This is corporate money, primarily from the oil and gas industry, being spent to take direct democracy away from citizens.”
According to Micah Parkin of 350 Colorado, “Raise the Bar would make it nearly impossible for ordinary Colorado people to participate in one of the last vestiges of direct democracy: the ballot initiative process. ‘Raise the Bar’ is an attempt to eliminate legitimate grassroots movements that are powered by people by making qualifying for the ballot even more expensive and logistically cumbersome, leaving the process accessible only to extremely wealthy special interests and corporations, like the oil & gas industry.”
