Activist’s Attempt at Convincing Longmont to Enact Fracking Moratorium Falls Flat
Wednesday October 19, 2016
After failing to garner enough statewide support to place a pair of ballot initiatives to ban fracking on the ballot this fall, activists are taking their campaign back to the local level, and are getting the same results.
The latest failure came last night when Karen Dike, a lead proponent of the failed initiatives, attempted to persuade Longmont City Council members to adopt a one-year moratorium on fracking within the city limits. As the Longmont Times-Call reports:
“Dike said Longmont residents demand the council enact a moratorium because the oil and gas regulations that survived a lawsuit were written in 2012 and are now out of date.”
But Longmont City Council members were not too enthusiastic about that idea. Also from the Times-Call:
“Councilwoman Bonnie Finley said she has faith in Longmont’s regulations and wouldn’t see a need to update. Councilman Jeff Moore said that if the city can deal with minor details in the regulations in less than a year, he didn’t know whether they should enact a moratorium.”
Longmont mayor, Dennis Coombs said he is “not there yet” while other council members alluded to a recent state Supreme Court decision ruling that Longmont’s now defunct fracking ban was illegal. From the Times-Call