Fracking fracturing Democrat unity in some states

Ron Arnold:

“You know, slavery had a lot of economic benefits, but it had an ethical problem.” That was anti-fracking activist Weston Wilson on Monday pushing a ban on hydraulic fracturing in Colorado by asserting that oil and gas development is equivalent to slavery.

Such vitriolic ideology is intensifying as politics in swing-state Colorado ramps up to this year’s midterm elections. Politico Magazine headlined a report, “How Fracking Could Break Colorado Democrats.”

Party loyalty is rapidly dissolving in the acid of anti-fracking ballot initiatives funded by Colorado’s outspoken billionaire Rep. Jared Polis and outside Big Green money, both targeting the state’s $29 billion annual petroleum industry.

Activists who successfully passed fracking bans in several Colorado cities have turned on incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall — whose reelection results could determine control of the Senate — because he positioned himself as “a champion of Colorado's natural gas industry” in a move to expand a foreign aid package moving through the Senate to allow more liquid natural gas exports.

In a phone conversation, I asked Denver-based independent political pollster Floyd Ciruli about Udall’s situation. He said the arrival of Republican Rep. Cory Gardner into the Senate race against Udall was a game-changer. “Gardner is running only two points behind Udall now, and this is going to be a huge battle — and so is the cluster of Jared Polis initiatives.”

I came away with the impression that this is the “Fracking Election.”

What’s really at stake here? I asked Simon Lomax, western director of Energy In Depth, a program of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. He pointed out in an email the central fact nobody’s talking about: “You cannot produce oil or natural gas in Colorado without hydraulic fracturing, and that’s been the case for decades.”

Detailed estimates how much Colorado drilling requires fracking technology range in the high 90th percentile. But for all practical purposes, the proposed ban on fracking is, as Lomax says, really a ban on all oil and natural gas production in the state.

And that’s exactly what Colorado’s treacherous far-left greenies want: for the public to believe that their initiatives simply let communities decide whether to allow drilling in their neighborhood. They’re deliberately and effectively misleading voters: “local control” is a concept that polls high — above 60 percent.

Michael Sandoval, investigative reporter with Denver’s Independence Institute, obtained proof of that assertion: the audio of a national anti-fracking strategy conference call dubbed “Join the Call to Ban Fracking.” The call was convened by Americans Against Fracking and included remarks by Local Control Colorado activist Kaye Fissinger plainly stating activists are looking to ban hydraulic fracturing in the state, despite public protestations that this is not the case.
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The anti energy left is willing to use dishonesty to achieve their objectives.  They are also willing to use economic ignorance as the comments about slavery suggest.  Slavery had few if any economic benefits.  There was no incentive to increase productivity on the part of the workers other than negative punishment which is not near as motivational as profits for workers.  What the anti energy left is proposing in Colorado is restrictions that will make the state poorer.