Colorado Activist Group Opposed To Hydraulic Fracturing Proposes Ballot Initiative To Give Municipalities Broad Regulatory Authority At Expense Of State Power
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Last week, the Colorado Community Rights Network, an activist group that opposes hydraulic fracturing, filed a proposed ballot initiative to amend the Colorado Constitution to give municipalities extraordinarily broad authority to regulate for-profit businesses operating within their jurisdiction.
Last week, the Colorado Community Rights Network, an activist
group that opposes hydraulic fracturing, filed a proposed ballot initiative to amend the Colorado Constitution
to give municipalities extraordinarily broad authority to regulate
for-profit businesses operating within their jurisdiction.
The proposal grew out of anti-fracking activists'
frustration with current state law, which prohibits municipalities
from displacing the state's authority over the regulation of
hydraulic fracturing. That issue is currently being
litigated. See Colorado Oil and Gas Association Files Suit
Against Fracking Bans. The newly proposed ballot
initiative goes well beyond regulation of natural resource
development, however, to include any and all activity by for-profit
businesses. The Network's decision to craft a broad
proposal that does not expressly reference hydraulic fracturing may
reflect a strategic decision to appeal to a broad swath of local
control proponents since hydraulic fracturing enjoys the support of
a majority of Colorado voters, according to a November 2013
Quinnipiac University poll.
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