This is in response to the editorial “Ballots, fracking” (Herald, March 3).
While I am involved in developing and promoting some of the ballot measures referred to in the editorial for this November’s ballot, my comments here are personal. My involvement stems from a well-founded, experiential knowledge that local communities and affected citizens are left with no choice but to pursue constitutional changes to how gas and oil development is controlled in this state.
One thing that the Herald should not try to feed me or our community is the Pollyannic notion that “there must be a renewed effort to engage and empower local governments in determining how gas and oil activity occurs in their communities.” Really? Just have faith in a system that has proved to be corrupted by the industry it is charged with controlling? Nothing meaningful can be accomplished by working within a system in which the game is rigged, and believe me, this game is rigged.
Look at last year’s Task Force. In that farce, our governor proved that there will be no serious attempts, as long as he is governor, to come up with solutions to the problems confronting local communities. That Task Force became a whitewash, another co-opted stain on the Hickenlooper legacy. People see that whitewash and know that this is a pattern that will not end. So people turn to the only bit of control that has not yet been taken from them: constitutional amendment.
For more than 25 years, I have seen this industry and state government bully local governments and individuals who have stood up to them. The industry sues to intimidate and strut its raw power; people stand up to prevent degradation of their communities. I know which side of that battle I am on. I encourage everyone who is interested in reining in an arrogantly out-of-control industry and the state government it runs, to ignore the apologists and those who believe that the state won’t continue to do the industry’s bidding, and support ballot measures that give power where it should reside: to local governments.
Josh Joswick
Bayfield
