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If Kathy Hall said it....Face-the-State thinks it's good to go

by: ClubTwitty

Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 08:18:37 AM MST

( - promoted by Colorado Pols)

It must be true.

Or apparently that is enough 'fact' for Face-the-State to launch into a speculative article "Could Curry be the next Buescher."

The tale turns on this ominous quote by oil and gas mouthpiece and known dissembler Kathy Hall:

According to Kathy Hall, western slope director for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, Colorado has already seen a loss of about $3 billion in drilling activity since the new regulations passed last year. The economy of Curry's western slope district relies heavily on the energy industry.
"The drop in drilling translates into a loss of millions of dollars of severance tax revenues," said Hall. "[Curry] is going to have to answer to her voters why she worked so hard to destroy an industry that supplies money to local municipalities, schools and fire districts."

Kathy Hall has a head full of rocks. As is well-documented, drilling activity has been plummeting all across the globe--in Colorado, in Texas, off-shore, and even in Siberia. New regulations were not passed last year; they won final approval by the COGCC and now have to go before the legislature--before they take effect a couple of months hence.

If Kathy Hall is an idiot...what does that say about 'Face the State'?

ClubTwitty :: If Kathy Hall said it....Face-the-State thinks it's good to go

Besides relying on a fundamentally faulty premise without any context (and thus falsely implying that new rules not yet put into effect not last year in Colorado have caused the oil and gas industry to crash here while it is doing just fine, drilling up a storm, everywhere else), Face-the-State ignores the most obvious factors that led to Beuscher's defeat.

Mesa County is a Republican stronghold.

In Gunnison County, the BOCC is made up of three Democrats--in Mesa County it is three Republicans.

In Gunnison County, voters in 2008 supported Obama for president at 63% while in Mesa County voters supported McCain by 64%. John Salazar and Mark Udall won ~~Garfield~~ Gunnison [typo-CT] County; Wayne 'Who?' Wolf and Bob Schaffer won Mesa County.

Curry's district does include some of Garfield and Pitkin counties, but its Glenwood, Carbondale and Aspen.

It's disappointing when anyone prints disproven talking points from disreputable sources. To use them to craft a spurious piece of thinly veiled threats is scurrilous.

Certainly political analysis from a blog that calls itself 'Colorado's Front Page' and the 'Go To' political news resource, might actually include politics and news in its analysis before constructing a story around a weave of verbal fantasy. Or not, apparently, if you are Face-the-State.

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If Kathy Hall said it....Face-the-State thinks it's good to go | 21 comments

"If Kathy Hall is an idiot...what does that say about 'Face the State'?"

Why has Pols been reduced to pointing out the obvious?

by: Karinthy @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 10:55:17 AM CST

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What does it say about Pols

They just repeated the fact and after all isn't that even more obvious.

by: Libertad @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 12:16:07 PM CST

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Face the state is a bad emulation of Colorado Pols

Face the State needs a redesign. It is not reader friendly and discourages reader participation.

by: Another skeptic @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 14:00:35 PM CST

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They should employ this soapbox technology

by: Libertad @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 15:02:26 PM CST

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reader participation

and discourages reader participation.

That's a feature, not a bug.

by: Steve Balboni @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 16:47:55 PM CST

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to be fair...

Club Twitty wrote this post, not Pols. They just promoted it.

"Fine, let's take a vote. Who wants fish for dinner?...Yeah, democracy ain't so fun when it fucks you, huh?" - shitmydadsays

by: Aristotle @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 12:21:03 PM CST

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Ahh...Good point. My bad. It was fake criticism on my part anyway.

by: Karinthy @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 13:03:28 PM CST

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There's probably a lot to what Kathy Hall says

Yes, exploration is down across the globe. But Colorado also is about to implement regs that will further discourage exploration and will cost jobs here.

To blame the cuts in exploration only on the drop in oil prices and pretend that the Colorado regs are having no impact is disingenuous.

dis?in?gen?u?ous? ?[dis-in-jen-yoo-uhs] Show IPA
-adjective
lacking in frankness, candor, or sincerity; falsely or hypocritically ingenuous; insincere: Her excuse was rather disingenuous.

by: Another skeptic @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 13:58:57 PM CST

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You would know

You're the poster child of disingenuous debating.

"Fine, let's take a vote. Who wants fish for dinner?...Yeah, democracy ain't so fun when it fucks you, huh?" - shitmydadsays

by: Aristotle @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 14:00:47 PM CST

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If only it was the rules.

If the new (not yet implemented) rules were really of such concern to O&G, then they would be accelerating drilling and permitting activity in Colorado these last few months before the rules take effect.

The fact that drilling and permitting is instead slowing down in Colorado (at almost exactly the same pace as in other western states) indicates that it is the overall economy, NOT the rules that are affecting O&G decisions.

Sum Ergo Cogito.

by: ardy39 @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 15:50:17 PM CST

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Disingenuous?

Not when the energy companies themselves are saying that energy prices and lack of credit are driving their slowdown as much if not more (depending on the company) as the new regs.

You're just repeating the same BS that Face the State did. To wit:

http://colorado.mediamatters.o...

by: bmenezes @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 18:14:54 PM CST

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When ideology trumps reality.

From the Craig Daily Press:

In his State of the County address Tuesday, [Moffat County] Commissioner Tom Mathers said that TransCanada, a Canadian natural resource pipeline company, will not build its Pathfinder natural gas line through Moffat County this year because of the economy and the state's new oil and gas rules.
Jeff Comstock, Moffat County Natural Resources Department director, also connected the state's new rules with TransCanada's decision to delay construction after the Commission's regular meeting Tuesday morning. Contrary to those claims, TransCanada officials said the state's regulations have nothing to do with the company's decision.
"The ongoing conversation in Colorado around what should be appropriate and not appropriate for oil and gas leasing in no way, as far as I know, impacted Pathfinder," said Scott Farris, TransCanada director of government relations. "In fact, it did not impact Pathfinder. That was simply due to the current economic conditions and the credit crunch that our equity partner faced."

While Moffat County officials cling to their ideology and fear-mongering tactics, the industry spokesperson denies that the new rules had any influence on their decisions.

So, who is it who fits the definition of disingenuous?

Sum Ergo Cogito.

by: ardy39 @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 23:32:42 PM CST

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Comstock is the chairman-elect of Club 20

He's handpicked by Hall.

At least Club 20 doesn't throw out members it doesn't agree with, as the Grand Junction chamber of commerce does.

But Gunnison County recently quit on its own.

by: gertie97 @ Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 08:43:14 AM CST

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It is hard to keep track

but, I think it is down to Club 16 now, maybe Club 15. The "all oil and gas, all the time" philosophy of " the Queen of Gas", Kathy Hall, is beginning to wear very thin across the western slope. With the State and Feds in the hands of the Dems, Her Majesty and "the Prince of COGA", Sen. Penry are running short of allies to cover their backsides.

by: dukeco1 @ Sun Mar 01, 2009 at 08:32:33 AM CST

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Generous of you to give Face the State any credit

But the reality, which is pretty well documented, is that it is not a "news" or "journalism" operation but a GOP-funded mouthpiece that uses misinformation to promote the messages the Republicans want to advance. The track record of both Face the State and its "managing editor" Brad Jones is pretty clear:

http://colorado.mediamatters.o...

Yes, the website is way unbalanced to credibly carry the "news" facade and Jones pretty much has established an identity as the GOP's errand boy, one who in his public appearances frequently makes it clear he has little to no understanding regarding the issues he's discussing at the time.

So, this latest bit is not too surprising.

by: bmenezes @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 10:59:26 AM CST

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Are you saying that Brad Jones...

...is a spokesmodel?

Tea party support in the primary.

by: DavidThi808 @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 13:56:33 PM CST

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More like

As Marlon Brando's Col. Kurtz labeled Martin Sheen's Capt. Willard, "an errand boy."

by: bmenezes @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 18:18:05 PM CST

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what does that say about 'Face the State'?

Exactly what you said.

And stating the obvious is often useful.

What worries me is my friends on the left who are buying into the 'inevitable GOP resurgence' - or helping it for misguided reasons. JeffcoBlue Jan 2 2010

by: MADCO @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 11:00:31 AM CST

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Guess the global drop in oil prices has nothing to do with it.

by: BlueCat @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 13:49:20 PM CST

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Well

According to some of the Blame Colorado First © people that just by talking about severance is enough to crater the entire world energy market. No need to actually put rules and regulations into place; just talking about Colorado is very, very powerful.

Colorado according to those people is more powerful than China, Russia, Venezula, and the middle eastern oil producers.

Colorado has oil, gas and coal. It will be removed from the ground no matter what rules and regulations are placed on the drillers, producers and mining operations.

This movie has been rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and destruction

by: Pam Bennett @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 16:38:51 PM CST

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Drill shrills

Oil and gas lobbyists forget to mention that Colorado has one of the lowest severance tax rates of all natural gas producing states, which should be a big incentive to stay. So why the slowdown in CO?

--Too much natural gas on the market and nowhere to store it

--No pipelines to better markets

--International and national economies (Most of the natural gas companies have a major interest in the crude oil business, too.)

Colorado's new Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission rules have very little to do with what's going on with the world as far as energy development. But the new rules have everything to do with protecting our environment and health here in the state.

With oil and gas lobbyists outnumbering legislators something like 10 to 1, it's time for citizens to step forward and tell their legislators to vote the new rules in.

PS: And that will checkmate the likes of Kathy Hall.

And the case with Bernie Buescher? Mesa County lost a strong voice in the majority party in state government (Rep. Bradford is really bringing in the bacon, heh) and the Democrats gained one hell of an SOS.

by: WestSloper @ Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 19:12:44 PM CST

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If Kathy Hall said it....Face-the-State thinks it's good to go | 21 comments