$fracking well$

CO should stop neighborhood fracking. A 2,500 foot safety zone would help:

Protect your family from health risks including birth defects, cancer and lung disease.
Make schools and hospitals safer from explosions and chemical leaks.
Prevent the property value of your home from decreasing.
Help solve the climate crisis and clean up Colorado’s “brown cloud” and severe ozone non-attainment.

In 2018, our ally Colorado Rising successfully placed Proposition 112 for a 2,500’ safety zone on the ballot, securing 1 million votes (~45%) from around the state. Many Safe & Healthy Colorado coalition members helped lead these efforts. Efforts to collect signatures for a similar Initiative 174 were underway in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, precluding our ability to collect signatures.

While Prop 112 did not succeed, it is credited in large part for passage of SB 19-181, legislation that changed the lay of the land for oil and gas development in Colorado. Knowing that lives were on the line, state legislators enacted this bill, which changed the mission of the COGCC (Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission) so that it no longer was to ‘foster’ oil and gas development in CO, but was to instead focus on protecting public health, safety and the environment. While the COGCC continues to permit hundreds of new wells each year, the regulators have enacted various rulemakings to reform fracking, resulting in the first-ever denial of a drilling permit in Colorado.

No Coloradan should live in an industry sacrifice zone; we have the right to guaranteed protection from polluting industries in our neighborhoods. That is why we fought for 2,500 ft. safety zones between fracking and homes and schools. While these setbacks were finally increased in 2021 from 500 ft. to 2,000 ft., loopholes exist and are being exploited. We know greater protection is needed to protect our health, our communities and our children’s futures.

Since the start of the Polis Administration over 4,000 fracking well permits have been approved by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. We need evidence-based statewide regulations that put the health and safety of Coloradans first.

Interested in the full language of Initiative 174: Safety Zones for Oil and Gas Development? Read it here.

Take Action

Call and/or email your legislators and tell them to direct the COGCC to not permit oil and gas drilling within 2,000’ of occupied buildings. Look up your legislators’ contact info here.

Endorsing organizations and leaders:

Andrew Romanoff Colorado U.S. Senate candidate

“The science is clear that our climate and communities cannot wait. Initiative 174 is the necessary action Colorado needs to take in order to facilitate a just transition to a sustainable future. The writing is on the wall. Oil and gas is a boom/bust industry and Coloradans deserve long-term, sustainable jobs as we work to protect our most precious resources of land, air, and water.”

Bill McKibben Author and founder of 350.org

“Addressing the climate crisis means reining in oil and gas production–and it seems like one good place to start would be near schoolyards and next to people’s houses. Though the oil industry will spend barrels of money to avoid any restrictions, it’s hard to imagine an easier or more modest proposition.”

Renee Millard-Chacon Founder of Womxn from the Mountain, Youth Program Coordinator at Spirit of the Sun

“With moral panic in the air, we finally have a chance to correct corruption at the expense of our suffering, by strengthening information, protection, and enforcement. STOP protecting predatory polluters contributing to human rights abuses, and START responding to America’s environmental human needs during a respiratory pandemic. Our chance to be good ancestors is NOW!”