Former Vice President Al Gore waded into a fight over oil and gas drilling in Colorado, urging residents to support a ballot initiative that critics say would effectively ban hydraulic fracturing across the state.
Gore, an ardent global warming activist, is effectively calling on Colorado voters to ban fracking for a fuel, natural gas, responsible for the lion’s share of reductions in U.S.’ carbon dioxide emissions.
Most scientists blame carbon dioxide for recent global warming. (SEE ALSO: So what? 15,000 scientists sign warning but 30,000 scientists are skeptics*)
“I urge Colorado voters to vote #YesOn112 to protect homes, schools, playgrounds and other vulnerable areas from fracking,” Gore tweeted Monday. “As oil & gas spends millions to fight this, your citizen-led campaign can protect Coloradans and make climate justice history!”
I urge Colorado voters to vote #YesOn112 to protect homes, schools, playgrounds and other vulnerable areas from fracking. As oil & gas spends millions to fight this, your citizen-led campaign can protect Coloradans and make climate justice history! https://t.co/UdXpnPy3z3
— Al Gore (@algore) October 29, 2018
Proposition 112 requires a 2,500-foot buffer zone between new hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations and occupied buildings, waterways and other “vulnerable” areas.
If adopted, fracking supporters argue the ballot measure would effectively ban oil and natural gas development in Colorado — a claim verified by fact-checkers at CBS News Denver.
Indeed, the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission found that implementing the 2,500-foot buffer for oil and gas operations would ban drilling on about 85 percent of non-federal lands in the state. That’s troubling to some Democrats in the oil and gas-reliant state.
For example, the Boulder County Democratic Party supports Proposition 112, but former Obama administration Interior Secretary Ken Salazar opposes it.
Former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, called Prop 112 a “keep it in the ground effort” perpetrated by activists who “want to see oil and gas development seriously curtailed, and perhaps even halted, in Colorado.”
Colorado Rising, the group behind the ballot initiative, claims the current 1,000-foot buffer zone needs to be more than doubled to 2,500 feet to protect public health. Gore’s group, the Climate Reality Project, is one of several dozen groups backing the proposition.
“A growing body of public health research shows that living too close to fracking operations, especially less than 2,500 feet, is a serious risk to health and safety,” Colorado Rising says on its website.
However, Gore’s support for the de facto fracking ban would restrict production of the very fuel experts say is largely responsible for the decline in U.S. energy sector greenhouse gas emissions.
A U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report released Monday says fuel switching from coal to natural gas lowered U.S. emissions 329 million metric tons since 2005 — the largest reduction for any single fuel source.
Fracking led to a boom in natural gas production when states, like Colorado, created the conditions that allowed utilities to switch from coal to less carbon dioxide-intensive natural gas.
Colorado has “the sixth largest natural gas reserves, and 11 of the nation’s 100 biggest natural gas fields are located in the state,” according to EIA.
EIA noted that “ample supplies of lower-priced natural gas and the relative ease of adding natural gas-fired capacity have allowed it to pick up share in electric power generation in many markets.”
In 2017, EIA reported that natural gas was responsible for more emissions cuts than all renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, combined.
Read more at Daily Caller
Keep it in the ground, save it for later, until nobody else has any left. Then we’ll be golden.
So how soon will Al Bore give up living in his fancy estate and go live in a grass hut walk instead of ride in a Limo fly in a Private Jet with John Travolta in his 707 or take a trip with DiCaprio and David(Laurie)in a Yacht
This constitutional proposal is opposed by both the Republican candidate for governor (Walker Stapleton) and his very liberal Democrat candidate, Jared Polis, as well as the present Demo governor, both of the previous two governors, one a Democrat and one a Republican. I’ve not heard any major politicians who support 112. And driving around I see lots of signs opposing the measure and have only seen one in support. If this passes then it has to be one of the stealthiest proposals to win and it will not only destroy the oil and gas industry in the state but will also cause Colorado to go into a recession as those job losses ripple thru our economy.