“I’m not going to go out and say the sky is falling and that climate change is happening, but I’m very concerned about the risk of climate change,” Gov. John Hickenlooper told a coalition of 22 southeastern Colorado counties at a public meeting last week, as reported by the Pueblo Chieftain.

The governor’s comments echo some of the same language he used at the Colorado Environmental Coalition’s “Rebel With A Cause” gala in May 2009, except then his views were a lot more clear.

“I’m not saying that the sky is falling. I’m saying that clearly the climate is changing, clearly mankind’s activities are causing it,” Hickenlooper said back then.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in Yuma.

Now, Hickenlooper clarifies that he is concerned about the risk of climate change but he deliberately stops short of acknowledging climate change is actually happening.

Even before he ascended to the governor’s office, there were questions as to whether Hickenlooper wears flip flops to the planet’s climate change debates.

In February 2010, at the National Western Mining Conference & Exhibition in Denver, Hickenlooper raised eyebrows when he said, “I don’t think that the scientific community has decided with certainty that climate change is as catastrophic as so many people think.”

It was a surprising remark that caught many people off guard, including Beth Conover, the author of “How the West Was Warmed.” Conover tweeted: “What the … ?” Hickenlooper wrote the forward for her 2009 book in which he called climate change “one of the greatest challenges of our time.”

Whether the governor now doubts how much the West has warmed is unclear. But rising sea levels, warmer temperatures and below-average snowpack are unmistakable to most scientists. And while he no longer comes out and says it is happening, Hickenlooper is preparing for climate change.

In an effort to conserve water, Colorado’s governor said Americans need to get rid of nonnative Kentucky bluegrass from their yards and that industry needs to develop more water-efficient toilet flushing. As mayor of Denver, he swapped out energy-guzzling bulbs in traffic lights with more efficient ones. He introduced biodiesel into city fleets, successfully lobbied for mass transportation solutions, implemented an ambitious recycling program at Denver International Airport and praised urban infill. In his speech last week in Pueblo, Hickenlooper reportedly mentioned he has been in discussions with the CEO of Kum & Go about possibly facilitating a low-interest government loan so that the convenience stores could offer compressed natural gas as an alternative to gasoline.

When it comes to climate change, Hickenlooper may walk the walk. But he no longer talks the talk.

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House Bill 1176 (pdf), which has been assigned to the House Local Government Committee, is sponsored by Democrats Matt Jones, Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, Sue Ryden, Nancy Todd and Roger Wilson.

“The [Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission] must require setbacks of at least 1,000 feet from any school or residence but allow a surface owner who is not located in an urban area to request a shorter setback than would otherwise apply,” reads the bill’s summary.

Current COGCC rules call for setbacks of 150 feet in rural areas and 350 feet in urban areas, but Jones says that’s not far enough away in densely populated Front Range areas where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is an essentially industrial process close to homes and schools.

“If three football fields from a school is good enough for medical marijuana, it’s good enough for oil and gas fracking,” Jones told the Colorado Independent earlier this month, comparing drilling setbacks to pot shops near schools. Jones also would like to see counties and municipalities take a more active role in regulating oil and gas drilling.

Republican state lawmakers Ted Harvey, Kevin Grantham and Scott Renfroe have introduced a bill aimed at stopping what even Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper has called a potential “patchwork” of local regulations overseeing stepped up drilling activities.

“The bill specifies that the regulation of oil and gas operations is a matter of statewide concern, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate oil and gas operations, and local regulation of oil and gas operations is preempted by state law,” reads the summary of Senate Bill 88 (pdf).

With regard to setbacks, COGCC director David Neslin told the Colorado Independent that such a bill is unnecessary because the vast majority of oil and gas wells already comply.

COGCC Director David Neslin

“Outside of Weld County – which is a different situation because you’ve had oil and gas and residential development growing up together there over the past 30, 40 years – in the balance of the state 90 percent of the wells are 1,000 feet or more from the closest building,” Neslin said.

Mike Chiropolos, lands program director for Western Resource Advocates, said setbacks are a valid issue with oil and gas booming in the Niobrara Formation beneath the state’s more densely populated Front Range.

“Even if it’s 90 percent, what about the 10 percent?” Chiropolos said. “You don’t want to leave those folks out in the cold. One Colorado family getting sick, one Colorado resident getting sick or having an avoidable negative experience because of a well being unacceptably close to a home is one too many.”

He added that new directional drilling techniques allow wells to be drilled 1,000 feet or even a quarter of mile away from homes and schools as opposed to predominantly vertically drilled wells in the past.

HB 1176 would require that “best management practices for new technologies be established by rule prior to use of the new technologies.”

As for greater local control of oil and gas drilling, Neslin disagrees with Jones, who recently told David Sirota on 760 AM in Denver: “If you want to not have a patchwork, you need to look at subdivision home building, cement plants, power plants. All of that is regulated by local governments. Local governments do land-use control all the time. This fits into that.”

Neslin recently told the Colorado Independent: “I don’t think it’s in the public’s interest or the state’s interest to wind up with a patchwork quilt of different regulatory regimes. I don’t think we want to Balkanize the regulatory program in that way.”

He added that oil and gas drilling is very different from other land uses.

“I would respectfully disagree with the representative that oil and gas wells are just another development activity like a subdivision or a cement plant,” Neslin said. “The state has decades of experience regulating [oil and gas] activity. Local governments have little such experience. So I just think there’s a fundamental difference there.”

But a bill like SB 88 blocking counties and municipalities from exercising any land-use control over drilling activity goes too far, says National Wildlife Federation attorney Michael Saul.

“That was basically the rule that the oil and gas commission passed in 2003 and then the Colorado Court of Appeals struck down in the Board of County Commissioners of La Plata County versus COGCC case,” Saul said. “It sounds to me like [SB 88 is] just an attempt to rewrite that decision.”

Saul says La Plata County in southwestern Colorado, where British Petroleum has been active for decades, has some of the most stringent local land-use regulations overseeing oil and gas drilling. There, the operator seems to have figured out how to work with county regulations without state preemption becoming an issue, he says.

“We’ve got 20 years of case law interpreting the existing state of the law on preemption and counties have learned pretty well how to follow that law,” Saul said. “Operators have been successful in navigating the permitting systems in those counties that have done so.

“Certainly there’s been a lot of successful drilling in La Plata County, which is arguably the most comprehensive [local] regulator.”

The local control question will likely continue to be litigated, but the issue of setbacks – which some critics say the COGCC punted during revision of the oil and the regulations in 2007-08 – will be the subject of a new round of stakeholder meetings.

“[Neslin] announced to the commission [last week] that COGCC will be convening stakeholder meetings on the issue of setbacks,” Colorado Department of Natural Resources spokesman Todd Hartman said.

“This is designed to get facts on the table, listen to all sides and determine whether changes are necessary or not. The meetings won’t begin with a preference for change or no change, but to educate all parties and see what adjustments — if any — to make.”

Rep. Scott Tipton

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, on the other hand, issued a statement after the State of the Union address to say he was “encouraged to hear the President talk so much about clean energy, as Colorado is leading the nation when it comes to renewable energy research and development. Many of the new jobs the President talked for this industry will be created in Colorado – and we are ready.”

Despite his stance on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, Obama touted the millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration that have been approved under his tenure and directed his administration “to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources.” American oil production is the highest it’s been in eight years. “That’s right — eight years,” he said to applause in the chamber.

But noting that the United States has only 2 percent of the world’s known oil reserves, Obama pledged to end subsidies for oil companies and instead “double-down” on “an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy.”

In last year’s State of the Union speech, the president also emphasized domestic energy production but never climate change. This year, he briefly acknowledged the problem.

“We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. But there’s no reason why Congress shouldn’t at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation. So far, you haven’t acted. Well, tonight, I will. I’m directing my administration to allow the development of clean energy on enough public land to power 3 million homes,” said Obama, adding the Department of Defense will also purchase enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year.

“Clean energy,” however, means different things to different people. In the past, the White House has used the term to include nuclear power, natural gas development and other controversial fuels.

Obama paid special attention to natural gas, noting that America has an almost 100-year supply and that his administration “will take every possible action to safely develop this energy.” He estimated natural gas could create more than 600,000 jobs in the next decade.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colorado, applauded what she heard in the State of the Union.

Rep. Diana DeGette

The president’s pleas for Congress to rise above partisanship were heard loud and clear by U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, who, after the State of the Union, remarked “… One place we can find common ground is on the responsible development of clean-burning natural gas, which Colorado has in abundance, as part of a transition toward clean energy and away from overseas oil.”

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colorado, also issued words of encouragement for Obama’s speech.

“President Obama tonight outlined not only a blueprint for an economy built to last but an action agenda that reflects what Coloradans have been telling Congress to address for months: create jobs and strengthen the economy; reform education for our children and economic future; make college more affordable; invest in clean renewable energy to make us energy independent; and ensure that all Americans have a chance to work hard and succeed,” Polis said. “These are all practical, common sense solutions to our most pressing challenges that Congress should embrace, and I look forward to working with Democrats and Republicans this year to make progress for Colorado and America.”

“If three football fields from a school is good enough for medical marijuana, it’s good enough for oil and gas fracking,” Jones told the Colorado Independent, referring to setbacks between oil and gas rigs and homes, schools and other public buildings.

Current state law requires that oil and gas rigs are set back at least 350 feet away from homes and public buildings in urban areas and 150 feet away in rural areas. It also requires medical marijuana dispensaries to be 1,000 feet from schools, and liquor stories to be 500 feet away.

U.S. Attorney John Walsh last week sent letters to 23 medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado that are within 1,000 feet of schools, telling them to shut down by Feb. 27 or face criminal prosecution. He cited concern for the health of nearby school children.

The issue of setbacks from oil and gas drilling has been unresolved since the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) punted on it during an 18-month revision of state drilling regulations in 2007 and 2008. Conservation and citizen activist groups have been calling for a new rulemaking on the issue ever since.

A middle school in Longmont has become the poster child in the fight for expanded setbacks. Testing of a natural gas well 350 feet from the school in 2006 and 2009 found levels of benzene much higher than state standards.

Fracking — the process of injecting water, sand and chemicals into oil and gas wells to free up more hydrocarbons — has come under increased scrutiny by Colorado counties and municipalities as drilling takes off in the Niobrara Shale formation beneath the state’s Front Range. Halliburton on Thursday announced it’s building a $20 million sand facility in Windsor to support fracking operations in the area.

State Rep. Matt Johes, D-Louisville

Jones is undaunted, telling radio talk show host David Sirota on Thursday that he knows the bill faces an uphill battle but that he expects to get a fair hearing. Jones also said Hickenlooper’s concern about a “patchwork” of regulations is unfounded.

“That horse has left the barn,” Jones said. “If you want to not have a patchwork, you need to look at subdivision home building, cement plants, power plants. All of that is regulated by local governments. Local governments do land-use control all the time. This fits into that.”

Fracking, Jones added, is just another industrial land use that local governments should have more control over.

“With fracking, when they come in repeatedly to re-frack a well, it’s changed the activity from just simply drilling a well to a repeated activity, and it’s more of an industrial activity now,” Jones said.

Both Gunnison and La Plata counties have had varied degrees of success regulating oil and gas drilling, implementing local rules that have been backed up by court decisions. However, the state contends it has a legislative mandate to regulate oil and gas drilling, with its rules preempting most local regulations.

Colorado oil and gas industry officials have expressed nervousness about increased local oversight. State oil and gas officials could not be reached for comment.

Construction for the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 (skyscrapercity.com).

“Environmental issues such as air quality, traffic congestion, climate change, forest health, population growth, and water need to be considered in this Olympic bid,” he added.

At this point, however, there is no official bid, and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) – based in Colorado Springs – has clearly stated it won’t submit one for any location in the United States until it reaches agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over revenue sharing.

Still, Hickenlooper and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock have been making moves to position Colorado for the next available Winter Games in 2022, including setting up the Denver Exploratory Committee last month. Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet has urged the USOC to resolve its financial dispute with the IOC soon so Colorado can submit a bid by the end of 2013.

But Wockner and others in Colorado’s conservation community say environmental concerns are just as prevalent today (perhaps more so) as they were in 1972 when then state lawmaker Dick Lamm led the charge to reject the 1976 Denver Winter Olympics already awarded by the IOC.

Colorado became the first host ever awarded the Games to later reject them after Denver metro area voters in 1972 decided not to commit the necessary tax dollars.

Lamm, who later was elected governor, declined to comment for this article, but in the past has defended the push to turn back the Games.

“I come down on believing strongly that the voters did the right thing,” Lamm told the Colorado Independent in an e-mail several years ago. “The history of the Winter Olympics was a history of red ink, and I believe it would have left Colorado with a very large expense and a worse environment.”

Some in Colorado’s resort industry are still sharply critical of Lamm’s anti-Olympic campaign. Vail Mayor Andy Daly points to the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 that made money and significantly upgraded the state’s transportation system, and mass transit to the mountains to fix the clogged Interstate 70 artery is seen as one possible environmental win from a 2022 bid.

“The idea of hosting the Olympics is exciting and presents a number of potentially powerful ‘win-win’ opportunities for Denver and Colorado,” said Pete Maysmith of Colorado Conservation Voters.

“Having said that, we know Coloradans are passionate about protecting our environment. Any serious look at whether or not to pursue a bid should evaluate environmental impacts and include voices from the conservation community in the conversation.”

Hickenlooper’s office referred questions about the makeup of the committee to Sue Baldwin, director of event development and marketing for the Metro Denver Sports Commission, or Denver Sports.

“The exploratory committee is a first step in what will be a long process to answer many questions about a potential bid,” Baldwin said in an email. “Essentially to start the basic framework of the evaluation process and build it out from there.

“There absolutely has to be a big tent, and [there] will be many opportunities for interested and educated parties to participate. Our objective is to be inclusive and transparent in the process and we will look to expand the group after this initial stage.”

Even some Olympic athletes have questioned hosting the Games in coastal regions and near cities not known for abundant natural snowfall, including the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, where rail service between the city and mountain resort of Whistler was actually discontinued prior to Games.

The next Winter Games will be held on the Black Sea in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. After that, the Olympics will be held in 2018 in PyeongChang, South Korea, where questions have already cropped up about a lack of alpine credibility.

Even in a low snow season like this one, Colorado is seen as cold enough and high enough for the sustained snowmaking necessary for major international events. In December, Beaver Creek hosted World Cup ski races cancelled in Europe because of a lack of snow.

Hickenlooper today recommended that $89 million in proposed cuts to K-12 education be restored because a higher-than-expected revenue forecast shows more money will be available for the state’s General Fund.

His amended budget request for the current and next fiscal years will also call for adding about $110 million to the State Education Fund; restoring about $30 million to higher education financial aid programs; setting aside approximately $8 million for the Colorado Property Tax/Rent/Heat Rebate in 39-31-101, C.R.S., to help the neediest of seniors; and increasing local severance tax grants by $8 million, to $18 million.

“The cuts to K-12 education in next year’s budget were the last and hardest to make,” Hickenlooper said in a press release. “That’s why we want those cuts to be the first restored. The state’s neediest seniors should also benefit from the higher revenue forecast as we make more money available to help them pay property taxes. We are able to recommend all of this because the economy has shown welcome improvement in recent months.”

The General Fund revenue forecast for the current budget year (FY 2011-12) is $231 million, or 3.2 percent, higher than the September forecast. The weakening in the economy that influenced the projections in September has reversed and there is more momentum in the economy than was previously evident, the governor’s office said.

The state’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) reports that job growth in Colorado has been stronger than expected and has been broad-based, thus reducing unemployment.

“The overall economy is still expanding only modestly as it continues the difficult process of rebuilding from the credit and housing boom and bust,” said Henry Sobanet, executive director of OSPB. “The state and national economies are highly connected to the rest of the world and dependent on credit. Thus, the European debt crisis and slowing in the global economy poses a downside risk to the forecast. Based on these factors, economic growth is expected to slow modestly in 2012. However, if European and global conditions improve, both economic and revenue growth would outperform this forecast,” Sobanet said in a prepared statement.

The General Assembly will need to act on the Governor’s requests, and the budget process will start in the Republican controlled House. The final budget will be based not on the numbers released today but on the March 2012 forecast update.

“We’ve been waiting for this kind of good news,” said House Democratic Leader Mark Ferrandino in a press release. “Along with the recent decline in the state jobless rate, this new sign of a more robust economy is beginning to look like a trend.”

He added a note of caution: “It’s too soon to declare victory over the Great Recession,” Ferrandino, Denver, said. “Now is definitely not the time to ease up on our economic development and job creation efforts.”

Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Englewood, gave Hickenlooper credit for his work to bring jobs to Colorado.

“Arrow Electronics wouldn’t have brought its headquarters to this state without Governor Hickenlooper’s personal invitation,” Kagan said.

Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, a member of the Joint Budget Committee, endorsed the governor’s recommendation to cancel a proposed $89 million cut to K-12 education and cuts to financial aid for college students.

“There is no better guarantee of a healthy Colorado economy than a well-educated Colorado workforce,” Rep. Levy said.

Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, had this to say:

“It’s encouraging to see Colorado’s economy continue to improve, but we need to keep working to create jobs and strengthen the economy. When the legislative session opens in January, we plan to introduce the ‘Colorado Works’ jobs package, a series of bills designed to put more Coloradans back to work and spur economic growth. We look forward to working with our Republican colleagues to pass legislation to help speed Colorado to economic recovery.”

Ski racing fans in Beaver Creek, a resort built to host the 1976 Winter Olympics that Denver voters rejected (David O. Williams).

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the newly formed Denver Exploratory Committee. The two sides are locked in a dispute over slices of the Olympic pie, with the USOC insisting on the traditional 20 percent of global sponsorship revenues and a 12.75 percent share of U.S. broadcast rights. The IOC wants to keep more of that money.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., this fall urged the two sides to come together in a timely fashion so businesses and politicians in Colorado could start selling a Denver bid to the public. A bid would have to be submitted by the end of 2013.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock have been trying to stoke the Olympic fires since this summer, but there are a number of environmental and economic concerns that would have to be worked through. Denver is the only city to have been awarded the Winter Olympics (for 1976) and then rejected them because of voter fears about tax debt and impacts from growth.

In a joint release today, Hickenlooper and Hancock said that in the coming weeks the new Denver Exploratory Committee “will examine the financial issues, the feasibility and the economic impact of a potential bid and answer questions about such things as protocol, timing, venue requirements and process.” The committee will then report back to Hickenlooper and Hancock.

“The opportunity to pursue the Games is an endeavor worth taking very seriously,” Hickenlooper said in the release. “We’ve asked this exploratory committee to explore all issues relevant to Denver potentially submitting a bid to the USOC. Those issues include making certain any bid would be financially sound and will help economic growth in the state. We would also want to find ways to showcase Colorado as the healthiest state in the nation for work and play no matter of a bid’s outcome.”

Hancock echoed those sentiments, including the health angle – perhaps owing in part to the two co-chairs of the committee, Don Elliman, executive director of the Charles C. Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Biology at the University of Colorado Medical School, and Anne Warhover, CEO of the Colorado Health Foundation.

“The USOC is working diligently with the International Olympic Committee on a number of important topics, and we do not intend to get in the way of the immense work that both organizations have done to date,” Elliman said. “Our intent is to form a clear leadership group from the state and city to evaluate if the Olympic Winter Games is a good fit for Denver and Colorado.”

If the USOC does decide to pursue a 2022 bid – something that became much more likely after the organization dropped out of the running for the 2020 Summer Games — Denver faces stiff opposition from the Lake Tahoe area on the border of Nevada and California. Colorado companies have been engaged in a ski resort arms race in the region and local leaders there have been ratcheting up the 2022 rhetoric.

Here are all the Denver Exploratory Committee members:

• Ernie Blake, former Mayor of Breckenridge
• Jeremy Bloom, Olympian
• Kelly Brough, CEO, Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce
• KieAnn Brownell
• Cedric Buchanon, City President, BBVA Compass
• Mario Carrera, VP for Colorado Markets, Entravision Communications
• Rob Cohen, CEO, IMA Financial Group
• Tami Door, CEO, Downtown Denver Partnership
• Steve Farber, Shareholder, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck
• Cole Finegan, Partner, Hogan Lovells
• Harry Frampton, Chairman, Vail Valley Foundation
• LaCharles Keesee, Senior Advisor to the Mayor, Office of Mayor Michael Hancock
• Ken Lund, Executive Director, Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade
• Steve McConahey, Chairman, SGM Capital
• Chris Osborn, Chairman of the Board, Poudre Valley Health System
• Christine Riordan, Dean, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver
• Richard Scharf, CEO, Visit Denver
• Hon. Elbra Wedgeworth, Chief Government and Community Relations Officer, Denver Health
• Sarah Will, Paralympian
• Richard Young, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen

Hickenlooper trails only Mississippi’s Haley Barbour of those governors polled by PPP this year. 53% of voters approve of him to 23% who disapprove.

Democrats are pretty much unanimous in their support for Hickenlooper’s work (73/10) and independents are very positive as well (53/20), PPP said in an email. What really sets Hickenlooper apart from most of his colleagues across the country is that even with Republicans he comes pretty close to breaking even with 31% of them approving of him compared with 39% who disapprove. “It’s been a very successful first year for Hickenlooper in the court of public opinion,” said PPP’s Tom Jensen in an email.

Udall also has solid approval numbers with 41% of voters approving of him to 31% who disapprove. Udall was first elected in 2008 and will be up for reelection in 2014.

With no Senate race on the ballot in Colorado next year PPP took a very early look at how Udall would fare at this point against a pair of potential 2014 opponents. He leads Congressman Mike Coffman by 14 points, 48-34, and 2010 primary runner up Jane Norton by 17 points, 50-33.

Michael Bennet has a 38% approval rating with 33% of voters disapproving. Like Udall, 29% have no opinion about his job performance.

Louis Meeks’ well water near Pavillion, Wyo., contains methane gas, hydrocarbons, lead and copper (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica).

“EPA’s highest priority remains ensuring that Pavillion residents have access to safe drinking water,” Jim Martin, EPA’s regional administrator in Denver said in a press release. Martin is the former head of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. “We will continue to work cooperatively with the State, Tribes, Encana and the community to secure long-term drinking water solutions.

“We look forward to having these findings in the draft report informed by a transparent and public review process. In consultation with the Tribes, EPA will also work with the State on additional investigation of the Pavillion field.”

Pavillion is within the Wind River Indian Reservation. Residents there have been warned not to drink the local well water, and the Canadian oil and gas company EnCana has been supplying clean drinking water. However, the company disputes that fracking has led to well water contamination.

At the request of area residents, the EPA has been testing two deep water monitoring wells.

“EPA’s analysis of samples taken from the agency’s deep monitoring wells in the aquifer indicates detection of synthetic chemicals, like glycols and alcohols consistent with gas production and hydraulic fracturing fluids, benzene concentrations well above Safe Drinking Water Act standards and high methane levels,” the report states.

“Given the area’s complex geology and the proximity of drinking water wells to ground water contamination, EPA is concerned about the movement of contaminants within the aquifer and the safety of drinking water wells over time.”

The EPA also conducted new sampling of drinking water wells in the area.

“Chemicals detected in the most recent samples are consistent with those identified in earlier EPA samples and include methane, other petroleum hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds,” the EPA reports. “The presence of these compounds is consistent with migration from areas of gas production. Detections in drinking water wells are generally below established health and safety standards.”

Republican politicians have already started attacking the EPA’s ongoing investigation in Pavillion, but the agency is taking great pains to point out that geological conditions are different all around the country and that what’s true in the Pavillion case may not apply to other areas where fracking is suspected of tainting groundwater.

“The draft findings announced today are specific to Pavillion, where the fracturing is taking place in and below the drinking water aquifer and in close proximity to drinking water wells – production conditions different from those in many other areas of the country,” EPA officials said in a release.

Anti-drilling activists in Colorado have also pointed to a 1984 EPA report on fracking in West Virginia as evidence that the process can contaminate drinking water supplies with carcinogenic chemicals. But the Pavillion case represents the most clear-cut contemporary example.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper this summer said with certainty that fracking fluids don’t communicate with groundwater, but he still ordered a new chemical disclosure rule to be drafted. That rulemaking process is still under way.

Shortly after filing the petition, Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont signed on as well. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper apparently has no plans to sign the petition, but Colorado will file its own request to reclassify marijuana.

Currently, marijuana is listed as Schedule I by the Drug Enforcement Administration alongside heroin and LSD, which means that the federal government considers marijuana to have no accepted medical use.

“This is a good first step, in that it shows that politicians are catching up with the scientific consensus, which is that marijuana has medical value,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “If it succeeds, federal law will finally acknowledge that fact. Rescheduling marijuana, however, will not change the federal penalties for possessing, cultivating, or distributing medical marijuana,” he said in a prepared statement. “That is the change we really need. These governors should be insisting that the federal government allow them to run their medical marijuana operations the ways they see fit, which should include selling medical marijuana through state-licensed dispensaries.”

Rhode Island passed a law mandating the creation of three compassion centers throughout the state prior to Gov. Chaffee’s term, but Gov. Chaffee failed to implement the law, citing fears of federal enforcement against compassion center operators. Similar legislation was passed in Washington earlier this year, but significant portions of the bill were vetoed by Gov. Gregoire, including a plan to legally establish medical marijuana distribution centers. Both governors pointed to a series of threatening letters sent by U.S. attorneys suggesting that medical marijuana dispensaries could be targeted.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s spokesperson told Fox News that the governors had a valid point in pushing the petition.

“The governors in Washington and Rhode Island raise a valid conflict that needs to be resolved,” said Eric Brown, a spokesman for Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. “Colorado law requires we make a similar ask of the federal government by Jan. 1. We will do that. We will also continue to consult with other governors on this issue and with Colorado’s attorney general before deciding whether anything else will be done.”

Brown told The Colorado Independent that Hickenlooper would not sign the petition but that Colorado law requires the Colorado Department of Revenue to make the same request of the feds by no later than January 2012, and Brown said that will be done.

Mark Couch, spokesperson for the Department of Revenue, said the letter is currently in the draft phase and will be sent as required by law.

The pertinent section of HB 10-1284 is below:

(g) IN RECOGNITION OF THE POTENTIAL MEDICINAL VALUE OF
MEDICAL MARIJUANA, MAKE A REQUEST BY JANUARY 1, 2012, TO THE
FEDERAL DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION TO CONSIDER
RESCHEDULING, FOR PHARMACEUTICAL PURPOSES, MEDICAL MARIJUANA
FROM A SCHEDULE I CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE TO A SCHEDULE II
CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE.

On the campaign trail, Hickenlooper said he supports medical marijuana but is opposed to broader legalization.

From the Fox story:

The DEA has rejected prior petitions seeking to reclassify marijuana, but Gregoire noted that this is the first petition signed by governors.

Gregoire also said the science on the issue has changed. The American Medical Association reversed its position two years ago and now supports investigation and clinical research of cannabis for medicinal use.

Gregoire said she was on a phone call in August with other governors in medical marijuana states and said that there was a “huge volume” of interest.

Asked why no other governors have signed onto the initial petition, Gregoire said she and Chafee wanted to take the lead on the initiative.

“I have every expectation that you will see other governors join us,” she said.

From an editorial in The Seattle Times:

Anything that moves the medical marijuana issue along and advances public understanding of its therapeutic value is a plus. There was high hope that the Obama administration would reclassify marijuana and provide safe access to qualifying patients across the country. At the very least, the expectation was that the administration would leave 16 medical-marijuana states, including Washington, alone. Instead, the federal government has been a stubborn, unhelpful player.

Gregoire wins points for sticking her neck out. She and Chafee are the first governors to take this step. But she should have done so sooner. Reclassifying would be a big first step, but the federal process could take years. Still, medical marijuana advocates are impressed with the enormous amount of time and effort put into the exhaustive petition.

An editorial at Bakersfield.com, urged California Governor Jerry Brown to join in the petition as a way to increase public safety.

The governors want marijuana reclassified to Schedule II, which is the classification for cocaine, morphine and opiates, which have “some accepted medical use and may be prescribed, administered or dispensed for medical use.”

As we in California well know, conflicting state and federal views on marijuana have created a marketplace for medical marijuana that is void of legitimate regulation and patient safety protections.

A reclassification of the drug could potentially lead to marijuana being dispensed by pharmacies, which would be safer than, and preferable to, the hodgepodge system of dispensaries, doctor “recommendations,” patient cards and uneven enforcement that has resulted in illicit, back-door distribution to recreational users and unnecessary difficulties for legitimate medical users.

As recently as July, the DEA decided against reclassifying marijuana, but the decision was primarily based on old studies. A number of medical associations and organizations support the reclassification, including the American Medical Association, which reversed its position because current law limits clinical research.

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