Tag: Trési Houpt

Residents of the second-most drilled county in Colorado warn backers of eleven “local control” ballot questions to be careful what they wish for, because oil and gas money will funnel into local races, they say, stacking county commissions and city councils in the industry’s favor.

Most of the criticism thus far of Colorado’s proposed changes to rules governing hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure – and the vast majority of online comments – has centered on the so-called “trade secret” loophole that would allow oil and gas companies to obtain exemptions from disclosing certain chemicals for proprietary reasons.

Western Slope oil and gas watchdog groups this week questioned whether the new board members appointed to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) last week by Gov. John Hickenlooper will lean too heavily toward industry and Front Range concerns.

Despite three Republican county commissioners seen as largely supportive of the oil and gas industry, one of the most heavily drilled counties in Colorado claims the state’s oil and gas drilling regulations “fail entirely” to address the cumulative impacts of increasing the concentration of natural gas wells, according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

Residents of a Western Slope neighborhood called Silt Mesa -- targeted for stepped-up natural gas drilling by Denver-based Antero Resources -- are reportedly angered...

Republican Garfield County commissioner candidate Tom Jankovsky has consistently echoed the GOP party line this campaign season, blasting away at amended oil and gas drilling regulations that went into effect last year and blaming them for the natural gas bust many observers attribute to a global recession.

A Republican ski area general manager challenging an incumbent Democratic county commissioner in gas-rich Garfield County says winter sports, outdoor recreation and tourism there are no more threatened by drilling than other parts of the state are impacted by alternative energy.

GARFIELD COUNTY - Democrats drew up the blueprint on how to dominate a state in Colorado’s 2008 general election, but Republicans wrote the game plan for snatching a local election using outside oil and gas money – and they’re apparently sticking to it in 2010 Garfield County commissioners race.

Automated phone polls, anonymous mailers, big-bucks campaigning by shadowy outside interest groups – not the typical tactics of a local county commissioner race. But when it’s the top natural gas-producing county in the state, rules bend and get chucked out the window.

Garfield County Commissioner Trési Houpt Tuesday told the Colorado Independent she doesn’t have enough information to fully evaluate a proposal by Battlement Mesa residents to use county 1041 powers to regulate oil and gas drilling, but added she certainly understands their desire to pursue any avenue open to them.