September 01, 2009 04:25 PM UTC

Harmons' O&G story completely off-key

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• by: Duke Cox

Gary Harmons’ story in todays’ Daily Sentinel

“Ritter singin’ different tune on natural gas, new official says”

starts with a complete fabrication. In an attempt to turn a cheap pun to his own devices, Mr. Harmon implies that Governor Ritter has somehow “come to Jesus” on oil and gas issues.  

Gov. Bill Ritter has a new point of view about natural gas, his new head of economic development told officials Monday in Grand Junction. Natural gas is “where the Western Slope is going to sing” in Ritter’s effort to build a new energy economy, said Don Marostica, director of the Office of Economic Development and International Trade. He spoke to an audience at the Business Incubator Center.

Well, of course it is and the Governor has said all along that he understands how important the industry is to this state. He just doesn’t vastly overstate the case , as is the habit of COGA and its’ troops. Nor does he think the worst players in the business should be allowed to run, roughshod, over the surface dwellers.

Certainly, he has learned much about the possibilities of using an abundant, local resource and, as he should, is trying to work with industry leaders to help them develop that resource in a way that truly respects the rest of the stakeholders in this huge tussle.

Ritter is “very interested” in using natural gas as a clean source of power for electricity generation and no longer views it merely as a “bridge fuel” to an economy fueled only by solar, wind and renewable fuels, Marostica said.

But , our dear friend Gary can never just report the news without providing a sounding board for his favorite ideological flag bearers.

“I’m going to hold him to it,” state Rep. Laura Bradford, R-Collban, said later, noting that Marostica spoke before an audience that included bankers, business people and representatives of the gas industry. “He’d better be prepared to back it up.”

Never one to overlook the use of selective reporting, Mr. Harmon inserts this gem

More than 2,000 people packed a hearing in Grand Junction, most of them to protest the new rules.

failng to mention that MOST of them were industry workers.

But here is where the barking really starts

The two Western Slope Republicans – Scott McInnis and Josh Penry – who are vying to take on Ritter next year said Ritter’s new respect for drilling comes too late.

State Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, said he was unconvinced that Ritter is more welcoming of gas drilling.

“When Bill Ritter admits that his oil and gas regulations were a catastrophic mistake and fixes them, when he fires the anti-drilling activists that he appointed to the oil and gas commission, when he apologizes to the thousands of men and women who have lost their job and homes as a result of his administration’s extreme policies, then and only then will I believe Bill Ritter has changed his tune on natural gas,” Penry wrote in an e-mail. “Until that time, it’s all just election happy talk, and talk is cheap.”

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Why don’t you try holding your breathe until the governor says the new COGCC regulations are a mistake, Senator?

But here is the the part that really pisses me off.

he apologizes to the thousands of men and women who have lost their job and homes as a result of his administration’s extreme policies,

Josh Penry knows this is a bald-faced lie. He and his cadre of O&G trough feeders, have never produced any credible information to support this fear-mongering bullshit. Those people lost their jobs because of an unsustainable boom in gas drilling, created by profiteering oil and gas guys using other peoples’ money.

According to a report released by Encana themselves; In the summer of 2007 the price of natural gas in the Piceance dropped to $.03/ mcf., subsequently, they shut down the pipeline for a couple of days. However, even knowing that the price of gas was so low, they continued drilling apace. The mad rush to drill stopped right after the credit freeze. Once the companies had to start paying for drilling out of pocket…the rigs were laid down and the workers were laid off.

But truth is not a relevant word to Senator Penry as it is neither to  former congressman McInnis, who, edging up to the trough himself, chimed in

“They should have done their singing before we lost the jobs, not after we lost the jobs,” McInnis said. “We told you so, governor.”

We can no longer afford to allow these people to politicize this issue. The COGCC rules were instituted at the behest of a majority of Colorados’ voters in order to address serious problems. That process is ongoing and seems to be working just fine. Penrys’ opportunistic rhetoric and Rep. Bradfords’ idle threats are simply more grunting to the rest of the crowd at the trough.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/c…