May 22, 2009 08:17 PM UTC

COGA's forked tongue

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• by: ClubTwitty

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

The price of natural gas for delivery in June through August ranges between $3.15 and $3.59 per thousand cubic feet on the Rocky Mountain market – down from nearly $7 per unit one year ago.

“At the end of the day, what caused the downturn – and what will bring it back – is the commodity prices for natural gas and crude oil,” Ensign’s Matthews said. Natural gas prices often follow those for crude oil on the markets.

Denver Business Journal, May 22, 2009

Reality, facts, or fairness seldom get in the way of the world’s richest industry arguing that any regulation is bad, that the fair sharing of revenue is ‘socialism,’ and that Big Oil has nothing but the best interest of consumers and a clean earth in mind in all it does, every time, every day.

Republicans and their cash constituents (the mostly out-of-state oil and gas companies) are sharpening their knives in hope that by doing the bidding of their corporate masters, often at the expense of the actual citizens who live in their districts, the path to political power will be opened to them like a newly bladed access road across someone’s (former) pasture.  And Governor Ritter is target number one.  

“It starts with Gov. Ritter and his new energy program. Is it going to make it or not? The changes that he’s taken risks on – did he take the right risks or not?” said John Martin, a Republican commissioner in gas-rich Garfield County. “It also deals with the positions of the local folks, from the mayors to the county commissioners. It’s a very huge issue, along with the economy.”

But it doesn’t end there.  As Martin’s quote suggests, 2010 is likely to see the oil and gas industry (and their GOP waterboys) target races up and down the ballot, as they did (with illegal activity) to re-elect John Martin in 2008.

And, consistent to character, the industry is not above talking out of both sides of their mouths in their effort to do so.  Regarding a recent resolution passed by the Glenwood Springs City Council, unanimously, that would re-regulate under the Safe Drinking Water Act ‘fraccing,’ the process of pumping under extreme pressure a toxic cocktail by the truckload into the ground –COGA attorney Ken Wonstolen accuses the Council of catering to environmentalists (as if safe drinking water is such a limited concern).  

Ken Wonstolen, attorney for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, wrote an email to council members calling the action “unnecessary and ill-advised. It can only be regarded as a political statement in support of certain environmental organizations seeking to erect every roadblock possible to prevent oil and gas development.”

Duplicity as standard practice, Wonstolen also noted that:

Wonstolen and McClean argued that the new state regulations, which provide more disclosure of the chemicals and insert safeguards to protect against groundwater contamination, are better at regulating the industry than federal regulations, although COGA is also battling the state regulations.

The list of mishaps–poisoned wells and streams, sediment dumps, trucks careening out of control and dumping chemicals on city streets, well fires, explosions, toxic exposure, and other (predictable) accidents–grows.  But protecting clean drinking water–according to COGA–is best left to the states, except it’s not: COGA is suing to block these regulations too.  

Although they routinely claim that fraccing does no harm to water sources, industry opposes simple regulations ensuring that it is so, and even opposes telling local communities, and first responders, what type of toxins are in their midst.  

Maybe COGA and it’s well-heeled 527s and off-the-books political activity will successfully fool Coloradans into letting this one industry call all the shots about how it will operate in our towns, communities, forests, and state.  

Or maybe their constant whine opposing any change in the status quo–and the constant reminder of how impactful this activity really is emphasized with each mishap–will finally demonstrate their true intentions: make as much money as they can, then quickly leave the state when their profits drop, leaving economic malaise–and environmental destruction–in their wake, as they jet back to Tulsa, Houston, or Calgary.