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Boulder County Responds To Lawsuit Filed By The Colorado Attorney General

Statement from the Boulder County Commissioners

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017

The Colorado Attorney General sent a special valentine to the oil and gas industry today by filing a lawsuit against Boulder County for our working to safeguard our community from the industrial impacts of oil and gas development.

Drilling proposals of 20 to 40 wells per site are being proposed near residential neighborhoods, schools, parks, and recreational areas up and down the Front Range, and we believe it is our responsibility to ensure that we have the strongest possible protections in place for the residents of Boulder County and the world-class environment we have worked hard to protect and preserve.

It's a sweetheart deal for the oil and gas industry, but a massive waste of Coloradans' tax dollars for the State to sue us on industry's behalf, and we are prepared to defend our right to safeguard the health, safety, and wellbeing of our constituents.

As we stated when we first responded to the Attorney General's January 26 letter, Boulder County understands its legal constraints on adopting local bans and lengthy moratoria; however, the current moratorium is of a materially shorter duration and is consistent with Colorado law.
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Next Steps:

The Board of County Commissioners will proceed as scheduled to review the updated regulations that staff has been working on since last May at a public hearing on Tuesday, March 14, 2017, at 2 p.m. The commissioners have scheduled a follow-up public meeting on Thursday, March 23, 2017, at 2 p.m. to deliberate their findings from the public hearing and to make a decision on the adoption of new oil and gas regulations for unincorporated Boulder County.

For more information about the March 14 public hearing and the subsequent follow-up meeting on March 23, visit the county's oil and gas development website.

For the county's response to the Colorado Attorney General's January 26 letter, see: http://bit.ly/bocc01-27-2017

View Commissioners' Meeting Documents and Records >>

Americans with Disabilities Act Notice

Special Assistance

If you need special assistance attending a meeting or hearing at Boulder County, please contact the ADA Coordinator at 303-441-3525 at least 48 hours before the scheduled event. Boulder County's ADA Policy

FROM CONGRESSMAN JARED POLIS 

Polis defends Boulder County against Attorney General's overreach

Boulder, Colo.: Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) gave the following statement after news that Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman is suing Boulder County over its fracking moratorium.

"We should all be outraged that the Colorado Attorney General has chosen to use public tax dollars to bully Boulder County on behalf of the oil and gas industry. The oil and gas industry is more than equipped to bring their own lawsuits, and I suspect they have opted not to sue Boulder County because they know Colorado law allows for a short term fracking moratorium. What the Attorney General has done today is a purely political waste of money, and it is not legally sound," Polis said. "Cynthia Coffman is wasting taxpayer money trying to force Boulder residents to have fracking near our homes and schools."

Polis serves as Vice Chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC). He is a champion for the environment in Congress and an advocate for local control of oil and gas development.

He has written op-eds, introduced legislation to close oil and gas loopholes in the Clean Air Act, and has even testified before the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission.

Polis is the author of the Bringing Reductions to Energy's Airborne Toxic Health Effects (BREATHE) Act, which would address air quality and health concerns by closing loopholes that contribute to large-scale smog and ozone problems, as well as the acute health effects of drilling emissions. Polis also co-authored the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act, legislation that would remove the oil and gas industry's exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act and require the disclosure of the chemicals used in fracking fluids.

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