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June 16, 2009 08:34 PM UTC

Penry's Little Problem

  • 25 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

That would be the conflict between the people on the West Slope he represents as a state Senator, and the oil and gas interests he represents, well, regardless. As the Grand Junction Sentinel reports:

State Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry said Monday that he expects Antero Resources to engage in a “good-faith give-and-take” with Battlement Mesa residents to minimize the effects of oil and gas drilling it is planning there…

Meeting with about 60 residents, Penry also talked about the recently concluded legislative session and efforts to obtain funding for a west Parachute Interstate 70 interchange.

But in their questions, residents focused almost entirely on the drilling plans, which caught them off guard when Antero announced them last month.

Homeowners in the unincorporated development of about 5,500 people, many of them retirees, continued to voice concerns Monday over the drilling. They worry that Antero will drive down property values and endanger their health and quality of life.

“They need to be held accountable so that we can live a normal life if we have to put up with drilling,” Burk Wynkoop said.

Penry urged residents to take a methodical approach to work through the issues and ensure Antero minimizes its impacts…

Responding to a resident’s hopes that the drilling might be stopped, Penry said, “Under the law there is a mineral right that attaches certain rights, and one of those rights is access to it. And we are a country that needs energy.”

Translation: nice to meet you all, sorry about the drilling under your house but America “needs energy,” it’s actually the Democrats’ fault for not letting us drill in Alaska (read the article, he really says this), better work out your problems “methodically” with that giant oil company who will just happen to be funding my run for Governor in a few months.

What’s really amazing is that this charade started off with Penry talking about “good faith.” How do you think these base Penry voters, Western Slope conservatives who Penry must have in his column in order to have a prayer of winning next year, felt leaving this meeting?

Comments

25 thoughts on “Penry’s Little Problem

  1. Battlement Mesa Partners, the not for profit that runs Battlement Mesa HOA, has been in negotiations for two years with Antero (in secret as it is both parties right).  The planned community has 14 well pads sprinkled throughout to allow access to the minerals the community does not own.  Antero has reduced the number of well pads and will start directionally drilling outside the community.

    Antero drills in the town limits of Silt.  Then Sentator Salazar and Governor Ritter have held the “Antero Plan” for Silt as a model for other companies to follow.

    Problem is not Penry’s.  But I would fire the head of Battlement Mesa Partners if I paid HOA dues. i would incorporate the area  into Parachute or form a new town to gain sunshine law protection.  

         

  2. The Parachute I-70 Interchange problem has diminished greatly with reduced O&G traffic and CDOT exit lane improvements, so the meeting’s initial agenda was two “issues” behind (drilling in the atomic blast zone up the hill from Battlement Mesa and the Antero drilling plan in the Battlement PUD.) Sen. Penry kindly let Battlement folks bring him up to speed.

    It was also very nice for Sen. Penry to encourage the Battlement folks to organize and to promised them his support. Perhaps Sen. Penry was unaware that the community organizing that he has endorsed is being led by Western Colorado Congress….. http://joshpenry.com/wp/?p=35

    1. Because Penry opposes all regulation on the oil and gas industry, lies in defense of them constantly, and doesn’t give a fuck about them! Good for him to let them know it’s time to organize, yeah.

      And yeah, it’s great that the oil industry’s trucks have a nice new interchange to get in and out of the gaspatches in. It was about the retirees having nice roads, riiiight.

      After reading about Penry’s friends on the Mesa County commission not wanting to know what’s even IN frac’ing chemicals,

      http://coloradopols.com/diary/

      I’m a little short on patience for people who try to say these oil company shills care about anything or anyone. It just can’t be justified anymore.

        1. Good for Penry for wanting plastic under waste pits so full of toxic chemicals birds die when they land there. That doesn’t excuse his naked lying about the oil and gas rules.

          Penry has descended into his current sorry state of shill for the oil and gas industry as he’s gotten older and stopped listening to people at townhall meetings – that’s what this story is about, and the one last week about his plummeting CCV score tells the story even better.

          And you’re right, Penry flip-flops a lot based on who bent his ear that day. Does that make him a leader?

          1. Why do you feel Penry, Ritter, McInnis, etc… should not talk straight to the people about their rights and others rights?

            At least Penry is out talking to the people, trying to solve problems and keep Colorado moving forward.

            1. What the hell are you talking about? I should make that my new signature, it would save me a lot of time.

              Libertine, what the hell are you talking about?

  3. to COGA lobbyists, like Kathy Hall.   It is going to be great watching Penry doing the Texas-two-step in trying to convince people that he does not represent just a small group of O&G wallet padders in Mesa County.  

    Somehow, Penry is going to have to dupe Colorado voters into believing he represents more than out-of-state hydrocarbon companies and a small Mesa County Republican cabal.  And a politician who wants to make a few rich at the expense of many will find a hard row to how in Colorado.

    It will be quite a magic trick if Penry can hide his marionette strings from the people of Colorado. And if he does double cross and bite the hands that feed him….?  

    –WE fabricated YOU as OUR Manchurian candidate and if you do not toe the O&G line, we will take you out!  You represent our Stasi, not constituents! —

      1. being so bitter that the “small Mesa County Republican cabal” you refer to trounced Matt Smith in such an embarassing fashion that you’re compelled to lurk around on this blog looking for any and every opportunity to (anonymously) attack Penry.

        1. I can’t find “Mesa Moderate” in the voter file either. Do you have a middle initial?

          Wait you’re anonymous too? STFU then, since the only time YOU ever appear on this blog is looking for any and every opportunity to (anonymously) genuflect to Penry.

          1. but this attack using the f-word shows your emotional stability is low.

            Just because MM fails to whet your pallet with the latest groupthink and bailout dreams doesn’t mean s/he (MM) be the recipient of hateful tantrums.

            1. Libertine is a Scientologist too. Please don’t audit me, you sorry nutjob. I like my thetans just the way they are.

              And don’t get all JO on us, we can use the f-word on each other and still hug afterwards.

              1. some major hostility and vague assumptions.  I hope you don’t subscribe to the warped thought that you alone can change the reality of nature that surrounds you.

                ps to meet your low expectations of self and other … you’re a bitter little man and FU2

  4. Ok, lets get real here.  Do you like to heat your house in the cold Colorado winters, yes.  Do you like to drive your SUV with your bike on the back to go mountain biking in our beautiful Colorado Mountains, yes.  Do you like to put on sunscreen to stay healthy while rafting on the Colorado River, yes.  Then get over yourselves about the Oil and Gas industry operating in Colorado because all of the above items and activities have to do with the Oil and Gas industry giving you those things.  Josh has to find the happy medium and so do you enviros that forget sometimes what it take to balance the two.

    1. Nice to meet you, yes I like all of those things except for the fact that I own a Prius and like my “happy medium” a lot closer to Bill Ritter and a lot further away from Penry, who really isn’t trying to find a “happy medium” at all.

      I also like ponies.

    2. will sign up today?  Their gluttony caused many to lose their jobs, so there must be hundreds available to tap for shilling, huh?  Or are you just MesaMod in a new sock puppet? Here is your clue for today:  COGA and Penry are fighting that “balance”.

    3. and by categorizing it line of thinking I am being generous.  So you just have to suck it up and deal with harmful gasses, groundwater pollution, unsafe conditions and complete environmental degredation if you want gas, and ie a heated home a car, or any other petroleum products for that matter.

      You are drawing a false dichotomy that simply isn’t there.  Yes, oil and gas can follow regulations that help keep the rest of us safe and healthy and still make good money, and we can still get our gas, in spite of their shouting to the mountaintops that being an ethical corporate citizen will put them out of business.  Really. Its OK.

  5. Huh, never would guessed that. Is the good Senator blogging himself under one of these names are just the usual suspects from the Independence Institute and Face the State?

    Words of advice – don’t be a Dick, Wadhams that is. Just as that asshole Bob Schaffer forgot the office he was running would make him accountable to all the people, Mr. Penry should start acting like he cares about more than just the far right fringe and his oil money in this state.

  6. Alaska (wildlife refuge) is primarily for oil; Battlement Mesa is natural gas–bound for Chicago and the Midwest.

    You probably know this but have no problem mixing facts to make a political point.  Now that’s ‘integrity’ as in Diaper Dan, Sen. Ensign (attacking Bill Clinton for having an affair), etc.  

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