July 10, 2009 05:59 PM UTC

Ritter Betrays Greens on "Frac'ing" Bill?

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’re trying to figure out the full meaning of what virtually every paper in Colorado is talking about today–we’ll cite the Durango Herald, though you can pick from your favorite:

Gov. Bill Ritter said Thursday he has asked U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette to back off her bill to regulate hydraulic fracturing and that she has agreed.

DeGette’s spokesman, though, said “all options are open” and DeGette wants to hold a hearing on her bill.

The bill would close what gas industry critics call the “Halliburton exemption” to water-quality laws.

Ritter shared the news with several hundred gas industry executives at the Colorado Oil and Gas Association conference…

However, DeGette spokesman Kristopher Eisenla said DeGette has not agreed to substitute a study for her bill. [Pols emphasis]

“She understands (Ritter’s) concerns, but she is still looking at all options to move this forward. That includes holding a hearing and doing a study,” Eisenla said…

There has been much talk about the “frac’ing” or fracture drilling process as DeGette’s bill gears up for debate in the House–a process used widely in Colorado by energy companies to maximize production. Though asserted safe by the industry, the chemicals used in the process are a closely-guarded trade secret, not subject to normal regulations on hazardous materials placed underground. Opponents point to an incident in Durango last year where a nurse become critically ill after treating a gaspatch worker who came into her emergency room soaked in these chemicals–which the industry refused to fully identify to attending physicians. There is also the ongoing controversy over gas seeps created by this method of drilling allegedly contaminating water supplies on the Western Slope.

The Colorado Independent has closely followed Rep. DeGette’s FRAC Act and associated narratives, most recently focusing on a Colorado School of Mines geology professor who claims his job has been threatened for speaking out about the possible dangers of frac’ing. In short, this has all the accoutrements of a classic public good vs. “Big Oil” battle royale: with enough evidence of intense backroom pressure, and real Silent Spring-style harm being done–all against the backdrop of a pressing need to meet energy demands affordably–to draw clear battle lines between liberals and conservatives.

Which brings us back to Bill Ritter. Did he just place himself squarely on wrong side, at least as far as his base is concerned, of one of the biggest public health issues in the gaspatch? This is no small question, Ritter was named the “Greenest Governor in America” last week by a leading environmental website. Republican candidates intend to use Ritter’s push for the new rules governing oil and gas drilling, and his ‘new energy economy’ branding generally, as a weapon against him. What Ritter did yesterday more or less shreds that conventional wisdom. What will it mean for him politically?

We actually don’t know the answer to that question yet. How the environmental groups react to Ritter’s position on DeGette’s bill will be very closely watched in the next few days. But remember, this is a man who has already alienated a significant–though not dominant–component of his base, namely labor, with many more not directly affected by Ritter’s snubs of labor over his first term sympathetically upset because of them. To counter that growing secondary, more passively negative impression among the broader community of base Democratic voters, Ritter has to able to point to the things he’s doing ‘right’–that’s health care, gay rights, and the environment for those of you who haven’t been paying attention, with the last always being the big showy one.

We don’t think he can afford to have any of them tarnished.