Signed off on by fellow GOP commissioners John Martin and Tom Jankovsky, the practice has touched off a debate in the letters to the editor section of the Glenwood Post Independent:

Mike Samson

But Andi Duplesys of Silt wrote that people take separation of church and state too far: “It’s difficult for me that people get so offended about that. It’s such a positive thing.”

Samson says he’s just trying to be more like the federal government: “The U.S. Congress begins with a prayer. I think that’s a good example for us to follow.”

Various atheist and freedom of religion groups weighed in that the commissioners should avoid the controversy altogether or just observe a moment of silence like the Rifle City Council. If not, they need to make the prayer open to everyone, including atheists.

Samson said he’d be open to atheists participating in the prayer. It seems, though, a prayer from an atheist might wind up resulting in the suggested moment of silence.

“I was sickened by Silt Mayor Dave Moore’s sycophantic ‘We love Antero. They are such wonderful neighbors’ speech,” Silt Mesa resident Dave Pegg wrote to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent, referring to comments made by the mayor at a special Garfield County commissioner’s meeting Tuesday. Moore at that meeting lauded Antero money coming into the town for “social and civic activities.”

At that county meeting Tuesday, according to the Post Independent, two of the three commissioners voted to formally intervene on behalf of Silt Mesa and Peach Valley residents who object to an Antero request to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner (COGCC) to dramatically increasing drilling density in the two neighborhoods.

Antero, which also has been embroiled in controversy over its plans to drill up to 200 new wells in the Battlement Mesa community, wants to increase well density in a 640-acre area near Silt from one well per 160 acres to one well per 10 acres, according to the paper. Silt is about 15 miles west of Glenwood Springs on Interstate 70.

Republican county commissioner John Martin, an ardent backer of the oil and gas industry, was the lone dissenting vote on the three-member board of commissioners, which will ask the state regulatory COGCC to consider citizen concerns about air and water quality and increased truck traffic before granting Antero’s request.

Commissioner Mike Samson, a Republican and former educator in Rifle, joined Democrat Trési Houpt in voting to officially intervene with the state on behalf of Garfield County citizens. “I have a lot of concerns about the health, safety and welfare of the people,” Samson said, adding COGCC rules are flawed because they don’t allow “ordinary citizens” to have formal standing, leaving it up to county government.

Houpt, who was decisively voted out of office last week in favor of Republican Tom Jankovsky (also a big backer of the gas industry), serves as a local community representative on the COGCC board. That’s a state position she’ll now have to give up after leaving local office.

Admitting there are “shortfalls” in the state rules regulating natural gas drilling, she has said local residents will have to be even more vigilant in monitoring the industry with the changes to the makeup of the county board. She also previously has said she developed a good working relationship with Samson, who seems more willing to take local public health concerns about drilling into consideration than his GOP counterpart Martin.

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Trési Houpt

The race was significant in the most productive natural gas-drilling county in the state because if one Democrat had joined fellow Dem Trési Houpt on the board, a number of key policy decisions favoring environmental and public health protections might have gone against the industry.

“Garfield was really ground zero in ’08,” said David Flaherty, CEO of Magellan Strategies, a Republican polling firm that conducted phone surveys in Garfield County leading up to the 2008 election. “If a Democrat had been elected, there definitely probably would have been some different policies passed or considered by the board of commissioners there.”

Tom Jankovsky

Had either Democrat Stephen Bershenyi or Steven Carter been elected in 2008, Houpt said things clearly would have been different the last two years, although she quickly added she’s forged a good working relationship with Samson, who has shown a real willingness to listen to public concerns about the impacts of gas drilling.

“There certainly are differences in priorities with the parties, and both John and Mike have been very up front about this,” Houpt said of the failure of Democrats to claim at least one seat in 2008. “Maybe there would have been support for the FRAC Act or the moratorium in the Divide Creek area – just a more cautious approach to energy development.”

The FRAC (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals) Act, sponsored by Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette, D-Denver, seeks to remove a Safe Drinking Water Act exemption granted the drilling process of hydraulic fracturing during the Bush administration.

There are serious concerns about the potential for groundwater contamination during the “fracking” process, but the Garfield County commissioners by a 2-1 margin voted not to support the legislation. Houpt backs the bill.

The West Divide Creek drilling moratorium was requested by Silt resident Lisa Bracken, who says cancer-causing chemicals and methane continue to seep into the creek near her property. She wants the commissioners to push the state to re-impose a previous drilling moratorium until the situation can be resolved.

Bracken, too, says Samson is a Republican who seems sincere about demanding responsible drilling practices and more state oversight. Still, the board declined to take up Bracken’s moratorium case with the state.

“[Samson], like myself, expects oversight from the state that was promised from the state,” Bracken said. “Martin is different story entirely. He does not seem to get what’s going on. He just seems to be adamant party-line, ‘drill, baby, drill,’ that kind of mentality that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

Jankovsky’s campaign recently paid Magellan to conduct a phone survey on the race. He said Houpt is too liberal and there needs to be more of an emphasis on the high-paying jobs the industry brings to the county, adding, “oil and gas will probably be one of the defining issues of the campaign.”

Saying he’ll bring a more balanced approach to the board of commissioners regarding oil and gas issues, Jankovsky added he still hopes voters will be able to set partisan politics aside.

“It is a local election, and I hope people look at that from Tresi’s philosophy and my philosophy and not even so much looking at as what parties we represent, although people will do that,” Jankovsky said. “But it is a local election, so I hope people will look at us as candidates.”

Both Houpt and Jankovsky expect outside influences will try to sway voters in the nearly 3,000-square-mile county of more than 55,000 residents that stretches from Glenwood Springs in the east all the way to the Utah state line.

In 2008, the nonprofit Western Tradition Partnership, founded in Montana but with offices in Denver, spent money on mailers in support of Martin and Samson, both of whom denied any coordination with their campaigns and denounced outside influences.

Another 501(c)4 that campaigned in the race, Western Heritage, was funded by $10,000 each from current Republican gubernatorial candidate and former congressman Scott McInnis and Paul Rady, CEO of Antero Resources, a Denver-based drilling company pursuing a 200-well project in GarCo’s Battlement Mesa community.

A third nonprofit, Small Town Values, reportedly spent more than $7,000 on advertising for Samson and Martin. The group was registered to former Colorado Republican Party legal counsel John Zakhem.

Two 527 groups, so named for a section of the IRS tax code, insinuated themselves in the election, with both coming back to GOP strategist Scott Shires – an operative with a long history of questionable campaign tactics that have led to legal action. Shires failed to register one of the groups – the Colorado League of Taxpayers – and was fined $7,150 in the case.

Environmental nonprofits under the umbrella of the Western Organization of Resource Councils reportedly spent $15,000 campaigning in support of Democrats Bershenyi and Carter. WORC includes grassroots activist groups like the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and Battlement Concerned Citizens, which are working to limit the impacts of Antero’s drilling plan in Battlement Mesa.

Garfield County exercises limited land-use authority over that drilling proposal because it maintained standing after approving the original PUD for the former Exxon company town that’s now home to more than 5,500 people. Once Antero submits a drilling plan, the county will begin a special-use permit hearing process.

Dave Devanney of Battlement Concerned Citizens says residents are nervous about the current political environment.

“The current political makeup [of the board], based on the recent decisions we’ve seen regarding the [Safe] Drinking Water Act and pit liners, it seems to us that their concerns are more with protecting the industry than safeguarding the citizens,” Devanney said.

“Our trust is that the commissioners, regardless of their political affiliation, are going to do what’s best for the citizens of Garfield County. We do recognize that the energy industry is very politicized and they’re going to do whatever they can to influence local regulators, and all we can do is try and do our best to influence them as well.”

McInnis, a former six-term U.S. congressman born and raised in Glenwood, showed up among a bevy of statewide candidates and GOP political strategists, but he also was there for the announcement by former Glenwood Springs City Councilman David Merritt that he’ll run for the Garfield Board of County Commissioners in November.

Scott McInnis

Merritt will square off against Sunlight Mountain Resort ski area manager Tom Jankovsky in a primary, with the winner taking on entrenched Democrat Trési Houpt, who is running again after deciding last month not to seek the local state House seat after Gunnison’s Kathleen Curry switched from Democrat to independent late last year.

Houpt, appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and a strong backer of environmental and public health regulations, is often the lone dissenting vote on the three-member board of county commissioners in gas-rich GarCo.

McInnis, in fact, donated a cool 10 grand to a political nonprofit called Western Heritage that campaigned in favor of Houpt’s two Republican co-commissioners, John Martin and Mike Samson, in 2008. The head of Denver-based Antero Resources also chipped in for that cause.

Houpt has said all along she expects to have a double bull’s eye on her back because of her position on the COGCC and the GarCo board, although McInnis spokesman Sean Duffy told the Colorado Independent in January that the county commissioner race was not on the McInnis campaign radar at that point.

After Saturday’s dinner, it may have just jumped on their screen.

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According to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, county consultant Dr. Geoffrey Thyne insists the seep into the creek may not be fully contained by repairs made by EnCana and also may not be limited to one well drilled by the company, as the state contends.

The banks of a Garfield County creek 'clotted with goo' (Photo: Bracken)

Thyne in the past has said the overall increase in hydraulic fracturing – the injecting of chemicals, sand and water into gas wells to free up more natural gas – should be cause for more study of the practice to better understand the potential for chemicals communicating with groundwater supplies.

Republican County Commissioner Mike Samson, according to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent, started to reference his past criticism for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner (COGCC) – the state agency charged with overseeing oil and gas drilling – but then backpedaled: “I don’t want to go into all that.”

Democratic County Commissioner Trési Houpt, also a member of the COGCC, has previously bristled at the notion the state is dropping the ball. The topic last came up when the commissioners voted to demand a faster, better response in the Prather Springs well contamination case.

Still, while the two Republican members of the Garfield County commissioners may feel Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter’s COGCC is to blame for recent water quality concerns relative to the oil and gas industry, they refused last week to back a federal bill that would require EPA oversight of hydraulic fracturing, maintaining new state regulations are up to the task.

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Republican county commissioners Mike Samson and John Martin approved a resolution opposing the FRAC (Fracturing Responsibility and Chemical Awareness) Act sponsored by Democratic U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette and Jared Polis. Democratic county commissioner Trési Houpt, who has previously voiced support for the legislation, voted against the resolution.

U.S. Reps DeGette and Polis

“Martin and Samson made it a partisan political issue, voicing their concerns about the current federal administration, and that has nothing to do with the point at hand, and that is that citizens of Garfield County are getting sick from drilling practices and bad water and air,” said Leslie Robinson of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, which had previously presented a draft resolution to the commissioners supporting the FRAC Act.

“Apparently the two commissioners feel like so what? They’re going to support the industry, who they feel are overregulated, and they think the state laws are fine enough to protect air and water, regardless of the fact that [the Colorado Oil and Gas Association] is suing the state to stop enforcement of those laws,” Robinson said.

Houpt also sits on the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the state board charged with overseeing natural gas production. The COGCC adopted tougher new drilling regulations last spring that require chemical inventories of hydraulic fracturing fluids be made available to emergency responders, but the FRAC Act would require broader public disclosure.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of injecting water, sand and undisclosed chemicals deep into gas wells under very higher pressure in order to fracture tight geological formations and free up more gas. Critics say the process can lead to contamination of drinking water supplies, and the FRAC Act would remove a Safe Drinking Water Act exemption granted in 2005 under the Bush administration.

COGCC director David Neslin said the state regs are adequate to cover fracking, and that EPA oversight could actually spread his staff too thin if it’s required to permit each fracking procedure. The state’s trade association, COGA, has sued to block the new COGCC regulations.

Houpt previously told the Colorado Independent that the FRAC Act made sense as long as federal and local regulators weren’t overlapping efforts. She also said she expects fierce opposition, likely from the oil and gas industry, when she runs for reelection in 2010.

“There’s a place for all of these layers of regulation,” Houpt said. “We just need to make sure that all of the various areas are covered that need to be and that we’re not working against each other.”

Martin and Samson may see some political fallout as a result of Monday’s decisions as well. While neither faces reelection in 2010, there is growing sentiment on the Western Slope that the oil and gas industry should be more tightly regulated.

One recent survey found that a majority of the voters polled in Colorado’s Third Congressional District, represented by Democrat John Salazar, support the FRAC Act. That district includes Garfield County.

Meanwhile, despite charges by the industry that the new regulations are causing them to scale back or pull out of the state, Williams – the largest producer on the Western Slope, recently revealed it will be adding three more drilling rigs over the next year.

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Despite some speculation the commissioners might vote Monday on a resolution of support for the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act, a measure introduced by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver) and co-sponsored by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Boulder), the commissioners actually decided to take on the state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC).

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette

According to the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the two Republican county commissioners, Mike Samson and John Martin, voted Monday to draft a resolution urging the COGCC to move quickly to clean up toxic chemicals in Prather Springs on private property between DeBeque and Parachute in western Garfield County.

A private consulting firm, according to the paper, narrowed down the source of the contamination to nearby drilling operations being conducted by two companies, Williams and OXY. Both deny being the source of the BTEX that poisoned outfitter Ned Prather and sent him to the hospital in the spring of 2008.

Democratic County Commissioner Trési Houpt reportedly recused herself from deliberations on the Prather Springs resolution because she also serves on the COGCC, but she told the other two commissioners to “do what you need to do” to get some action in the case, saying later that local governments have to stand up for the rights of their constituents.

The COGCC does not support the FRAC Act, which would remove a Safe Drinking Water Act exemption granted the process of hydraulic fracturing during the Bush administration in 2005. Derisively dubbed the “Halliburton loophole” after the company that perfected hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the exemption allows oil and gas companies to keep chemicals used in the process secret for proprietary reasons.

Critics claim fracking has in numerous cases led to contamination of water wells and other groundwater supplies, although industry officials claim it is an entirely benign process. The commissioners last month put off a FRAC Act resolution after viewing the documentary “Split Estate,” saying they needed more time to deliberate. Martin opposes a resolution of support; Houpt favors one; and Samson seems undecided.

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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (Split Estate)

“I really need to sit down and see it again with a pen and paper,” said Donna Gray, community affairs representative for Williams, the largest operator in gas-rich Garfield County. “Not to fact check it, just to organize our thoughts about it. Again, I’m not ready to say anything, other than it was a very well-done film … very well-done.”

“Split Estate,” an award-winning documentary detailing the environmental conflicts between surface property owners and mineral-rights holders allowed to extract natural gas from their land, was screened for the commissioners at the request of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, which hopes to get a resolution from the board supporting greater federal oversight.

Specifically, the GVCA wants the commissioners to back the FRAC Act (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals) sponsored by U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette and Jared Polis — both Colorado Democrats — and supported and opposed by a number of Colorado towns and counties.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a common gas-drilling process that involves injecting high pressure sand, water and undisclosed chemicals into natural gas wells to force open rock and tight sand formations deep underground and free up more gas.

The process, perfected by the oil services firm Halliburton, was granted an exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act during the Bush administration in 2005. The FRAC Act would remove that exemption and force oil and gas companies to broadly disclose the potentially toxic chemicals used in fracking, which industry officials say is competitive and proprietary information.

“One person who gets sick in Garfield County from oil and gas contamination from fracking fluids is one person too many, and we must help them,” GVCA board member Leslie Robinson told the commissioners after reading a resolution her group drafted at the request of the commissioners. The film details complaints from Silt and Rifle residents who say their health has been compromised for years by drilling operations on their land that have fouled the air and water.

“[A pro-FRAC-Act resolution] would make a lot of difference, and the county commissioners, with this movie, it’s something to make them sit up and notice,” said Dee Hoffmeister of Dry Hollow, south of Silt. “If it’s not in their backyard, they don’t really know what the ramifications are. It’s only those of us who have in our backyard and are sick from it [who know], and this movie is really showing what’s going on more than anything.

Some physicians agree people are being poisoned by fumes and undisclosed chemicals in groundwater supplies. They say there are simply too many cases of breathing problems, dizziness, unexplained achiness, nausea, bloody noses and eyes, neurological disorders and tumors to discount as coincidence. But industry officials argue there is no direct evidence that the host of aliments is connected to their drilling operations.

“I guess what I can say about Williams is we have a very good reputation as responsible operators in this area, and we stand on that reputation,” Gray said. “We’ve received awards from both the Bureau of Land Management and the [Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission] for community relations and for best-management practices.”

Officials for Williams, along with several other oil and gas companies active in Garfield County, declined to participate in “Split Estate.” Democratic county commissioner Trési Houpt thanked the GVCA for presenting the film and drafting a resolution for the board’s consideration, but added more discussion is needed before a decision can be reached.

“I imagine we’ll be putting this on an agenda, probably in November, because the three of us won’t be here the next meeting, and as you know, we still need to deliberate on that, but I think this reading [of the resolution] makes a great deal of sense, so thanks for bringing that forward,” said Houpt, who has previously indicated her support for the FRAC Act.

Republican John Martin has said he thinks federal oversight is unnecessary, while Republican Mike Samson seems undecided on the issue. From a state perspective, Gov. Bill Ritter has said more study is needed before a layer of federal oversight is added, and David Neslin, head of the COGCC, has said his organization would be open to more study, but that his staff generally feels state regulations are adequate for policing hydraulic fracturing.

“[The county commissioners] have taken a lot of testimony about [the FRAC Act] from both sides, so I’ll be very interested to hear,” Gray said. “They’re grappling with some difficult issues here, and I trust them and I think they’ll come to the right decision.”

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(Photo/comscigrad, Flickr)

Democratic county commissioner Trési Houpt, also a member of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, has shown support for the bill, sponsored in the U.S. House by Colorado Democrats Diana DeGette and Jared Polis. But Republican county commissioner John Martin has indicated he doesn’t think it’s necessary.

Republican commissioner Mike Samson, the third and perhaps deciding member of the board, while saying he is not taking a position that would reinstate Safe Drinking Water Act rules for fracking, did invite community activists concerned that the process is contaminating drinking water to speak at Monday’s meeting.

One of the key components of the FRAC Act — which stands for Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals — is full disclosure of exactly what chemicals are being injected into natural gas wells, along with sand and water, to force open tight geologic formations and free up more gas. Drinking water wells and creeks in gas production areas have been contaminated by methane and some chemicals, but industry officials say it’s not linked to fracking.

Gov. Bill Ritter and some scientists have called for more study of fracking before the EPA steps in to regulate the process.

“When the chemicals are undisclosed and non-regulated, what is there to study?” New Castle resident and community activist Tara Meixsell said. “The argument pretty much is that everything is fine and safe and there are no problems, so then why does it need to be undisclosed. If it’s fine and safe, then they should have full disclosure.”

Industry representatives say the chemicals used in the process are safe and need to be kept secret because they’re part of proprietary information that could give one company a competitive advantage over others.

Meixsell said she’s encouraged the commissioners agreed to see the upcoming documentary film “Split Estate,” which details the impacts of natural gas drilling in Garfield County. Meixsell, an associate producer on the film, mentioned one segment in which Colorado Oil and Gas Association lobbyist Kathy Hall talks about putting fracking fluids in her mouth.

“It would be a dream come true if we could all feel that way, that frack fluids straight from a truck would be fine to have in our mouth, but I’m not going to sit here and assume that an industry that has been tracked using toxic chemicals is going to self-regulate and still be undisclosed and assume that all frack fluids can be safely held in one’s mouth,” Meixsell said.

Locally, the cities of Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, as well as Pitkin County, have endorsed the FRAC Act. In the southwest part of the state, the city of Durango, as well as La Plata and San Miguel counties, support the bill. Also, two counties and three towns in New York, a town in Pennsylvania and a city in Texas support the legislation.

However, six Colorado counties, including some with the most natural gas reserves, oppose the bill — Delta, Mesa, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Morgan and Weld — as well as the towns and cities of Delta, Naturita, Nucla, Rangely and Grand Junction.

Also Monday, the Garfield County commissioners agreed to tentatively support the Thompson Divide Coalition, which opposes drilling on 122,000 acres of mostly roadless public lands northwest of Carbondale.

Sloan Shoemaker, executive director of Aspen’s Wilderness Workshop, has been fighting for years to protect the area, including exemptions that would allow drilling in the area under the Colorado roadless rule.

“[The Colorado rule] is going to allow those leases to be developed and eviscerate the Thompson Creek roadless area, which is Carbondale’s backyard and a Colorado watershed,” Shoemaker told the Colorado Independent last year. “The citizens of Carbondale are like, ‘Over my dead body on that one,’ and they say things to me like, ‘Just tell me when it’s time to lie in front of the bulldozers.’”

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Glenwood Springs, Colo. (1sock, Flickr)

Gov. Bill Ritter may have triggered a party divide last week on the controversial gas-drilling process hydraulic fracturing, bucking fellow Democrat and U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette. But it’s a purely party line issue in natural gas-rich ground zero Garfield County.

Site of two days of highly anticipated Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) meetings Tuesday and Wednesday in Glenwood Springs, Garfield County is split on the issue of “fracking,” which DeGette wants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Last week, Ritter advocated for more study of the process, which involves the high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals deep beneath the surface into gas wells to open up tight reservoirs and free up more gas.

Mounting anecdotal evidence of groundwater contamination near natural gas wells nationwide led to DeGette’s FRAC bill, which stands for Fracking Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act. Oil and gas industry officials have mounted a massive public relations campaign to kill the bill, which they argue is unnecessary because of state regulations and a squeaky clean 60-year history.

In Garfield County, scene of the most natural gas drilling by far during the boom that began in 2000, two of three county commissioners — both Republicans — have made it clear they oppose DeGette’s FRAC bill.

GOP commissioner John Martin, according to the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, said earlier this month that “you could put hydraulic fracking out of business” with the bill, adding: “We’ve got plenty of bills in place. It’s the enforcement that’s the issue.”

Fellow Republican commissioner Mike Samson said: “I agree with what John is saying, but I would like to have more information.”

Commissioner Trési Houpt, the lone Democrat on the board and a member of the COGCC, stopped short of endorsing DeGette’s bill, but did take issue with Martin, stating: “For the record, I don’t agree with what he’s saying.”

But in an interview with The Colorado Independent last week, Houpt, a controversial — at least from an industry standpoint — appointment to the COGCC by Ritter in 2007, was much more direct about fracking and the role of the federal government.

“There’s a place for all of these layers of regulation,” Houpt said. “We just need to make sure that all of the various areas are covered that need to be and that we’re not working against each other.”

She said the new more environmentally stringent COGCC drilling regulations that went into effect in April do require that an inventory of chemicals used in fracking be revealed to the state and made available in emergency situations, but she added that DeGette’s bill has more teeth than the state rule.

“So I’m not in disagreement with Diana DeGette’s language that requires more disclosure on chemical inventory,” Houpt said. “People whose property and lives are being impacted by energy development have a right to know what chemicals are being used in their area.

“At the same time, it’s important to protect proprietary information and the business concerns the industry has, so what she put together is probably a good balance and what we’ve put together at the state level could potentially be a good balance as well. We’ve created more safeguards for the industry than Congresswoman DeGette did.”

Overall, Houpt says the exemption under the Safe Drinking Water Act granted under the Bush administration in 2005 doesn’t make much sense when every other industry must adhere to the legislation first passed in the 1970s.

“I have a difficult time having one industry have an exemption when others don’t, and I’m not quite sure how fracking ended up being an exemption in the Clean Water Act in the first place, but I heard at an oil and gas breakfast [recently] that one of the speakers didn’t believe that it would put fracking to a halt in this country,” Houpt said.

The city of Glenwood Springs, site of next week’s meetings where fracking will likely be discussed, along with nearby Carbondale and Pitkin County, have endorsed DeGette’s bill.

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