Fracking moratoriums will be on ballots in Broomfield, Boulder, Lafayette and Fort Collins in November. Meanwhile, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association is funding campaigns to defeat the measures.
The trade group gave about $600,000 in all — $256,134 to Fort Collins, $171,238 to Broomfield, $110,337 to Boulder, and $66,974 to Lafayette, according to the Boulder County News.
Anti-fracking group East Boulder County United received $1,762 in contributions from mid September to October 10, the paper said.
East Boulder County United collected more than 2,000 signatures to get Question 300 — the fracking moratorium — on the ballot.
A study by the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business said the oil and gas industry employs about 30,000 people in Colorado, up 34 percent since 2009.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said the state now has 51,400 active wells, about half in Weld County.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association said up to 90 percent of the wells currently operating have been hydraulically fractured. “Without this technique, thousands of wells across the
country would be closed, thereby reducing our domestic production, failing to make the most of our oil and gas infrastructure, and negatively impacting the local economies,” it said.
Some of the proposed fracking moratoriums are in parts of Colorado where no wells have drilled for a decade or more and no new wells are planned.
