This Monday morning, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will hold a public hearing on its proposed “rules” for oil and gas exploration.  As part of its ongoing effort to stack the deck against conservationists and sportsmen, the industry is expected to try to pack the auditorium with people on their payrolls, many of whom will sign up to speak.

If the recent hearing in Grand Junction is any indicator, the O&G people will arrive well in advance of the scheduled start time and sign up so many of their people that on-time arrivers will be shut out.

We need you to be there – preferably by 7:00 AM - to sign up, then tell the oil and gas commission to stand up to industry pressure and protect our rivers and streams.

You might want to tell Commission staff that its decision to drop a proposed 300 foot buffer zone along rivers and streams was an unacceptable concession to industry and that it should be reinstated.  (Their revised proposal recommends a drilling buffer only for Gold Medal and native cutthroat waters). 

Wouldn’t you think that if you can snag an oil rig during your back cast that the rig is close enough to pollute the river with stormwater mud or secret-recipe fracking fluids like diesel fuel? Because that’s what could happen along the Eagle, the Arkansas, the Upper Colorado and a dozen other rivers.

So… show up. And show up early as 7am. This is where the line gets drawn in the sand – between the kind of responsible development we can support, or bull-in-a-china-shop exploitation.

Monday, June 23, 8am at the Paramount Theatre Denver – 1621 Glenarm between 16^th and 17^th Streets.  

Click this link for parking info and directions: http://www.denverparamount.com/parking.aspx

Click this link to visit the Oil and Gas Rulemaking website: http://oil-gas.state.co.us/