September 18, 2014 10:47 AM UTC

Rep. Scott Tipton Alters The Deal

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• by: Colorado Pols

​Staff writer Iulia Gheorghiu of the Durango Herald reports, locals are crying foul over a proposed amendment to legislation to protect the Hermosa Creek watershed that Rep. Scott Tipton has been working on allegedly in cooperation with them:

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton recently released a potential amendment to the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act, changing the House bill from the agreed-upon wording drafted by community consensus…

“People are very disturbed that this process, which was designed locally and has very strong local consensus with support from Congressman Tipton, has become a very different piece of legislation,” said Jimbo Buickerood, the public-lands coordinator at San Juan Citizens Alliance, an environmental protection group based in Durango…

But Josh Green, Tipton’s press secretary, said the bill is inherently the same.

“The amendment will in no way change the outcome of the legislation’s goals agreed upon by the stakeholders,” Green wrote in an email…

But that's not what the stakeholders say.

The amendment has removed a small paragraph on “Use of Conveyed Land.” Currently, certain areas are open to hard-rock mining and logging. The five-line paragraph that was removed acted as a safeguard against future exploitation of the land.

“There’s nothing in here that says they couldn’t turn it over to a developer of oil or a developer of gas,” senior director of the Wilderness Society Jeremy Garncarz said of the effect of dropping the paragraph…

The bill had been a collaboration involving two counties, multiple conservation groups and outdoor recreational groups, and more than 200 local businesses in La Plata and San Juan counties.

“The amendment guts it,” Garncarz said. “It throws all of that work out the window.” [Pols emphasis]

Partisan political considerations being what they are, conservationists start out leery of Republicans like Tipton for self-evident reasons. To the extent that Tipton has been able to mollify them by appearing willing to work with conservation minded stakeholders, it's been good for him politically. In other cases, like the still unresolved controversy over drilling in the Thompson Divide, Tipton has professed indecision, and tried to keep himself on the "persuadable" side of the persuadable vs. political adversary divide. It can mean a lot in an election year simply to keep stakeholders guessing–just enough to not risk attempting to hold you accountable (see Mike Coffman on immigration).

This could be the kind of swindle to make those local stakeholders regret giving Tipton the benefit of the doubt.