Tag: John Martin

A grass-roots citizen’s group troubled by air and water pollution from natural gas drilling in Garfield County expressed “extreme disappointment” Monday when the county commissioners voted 2-1 to oppose more federal oversight of the industry.

The Garfield County commissioners Monday did decide to fire off a strongly-worded resolution condemning contamination of drinking water by the natural-gas industry. It just...

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Everyone was a film critic Monday at a somewhat tense screening of the new anti-gas-drilling documentary “Split Estate” for the Garfield County commissioners. Most of the reviews — surprisingly, even from the industry — were glowing.

In light of new evidence natural-gas drilling may be introducing elevated levels of the carcinogen benzene into the air around the Western Slope towns...

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — An expected showdown over support or rejection of the FRAC Act by one of Colorado’s most drilled counties fizzled a bit Monday when the Garfield County commissioners decided to delay any resolution on the federal hydraulic fracturing legislation until they see a movie on the topic and take more public input.

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

In the late 1960s and early '70s, four nuclear devices were exploded underground on Colorado's Western Slope in an effort to free up commercially marketable amounts of natural gas from dense sandstone formations.

Two Democrats who lost out in a nasty election for the Garfield County board of commissioners last year say the main reason they were targeted by the oil and gas industry was something that happened earlier in 2008 in neighboring Rio Blanco County.

It’s been nearly eight months since former Garfield County Judge Steve Carter says he was ambushed by oil and gas money in his unsuccessful bid for county commissioner, but the Democrat is clearly still seething about what he considers a “stolen election.”

One Garfield County commissioner is trying to make the others toe the party line behind majority opinions.