Colorado B.S. Thread

If we are going to talk Lobbyists no one does that like Insurance companies...

 

In other news... Sunday will be... Bacon.

 

Alright, it Friday eve and we need to move to something fun

 

I do. Again, it’s not fracking that bothers me. It’s the scale. I get there is pretty much nothing, other than a change in state law, that’s going to change anything. I also get that state law isn’t going to change, as too many people have too much money in their back pocket from lobbyists. The bulk of the wells, 68 of em, will be going in about 1/4-1/2 mile from my son’s school.

 

Damn, no bacon here on Sunday.

 

Im working on a rockwell hardness B testing of 110-Copper lab if you want to help with that

It has copper in it...

So does the cups that are used in Moscow mules....

Moscow mules have alcohol in them....

Alcohol typically leads to something fun....

Fun is more funner then this lab is

 

Nope, have 4 hours of this starting in 2 minutes.

http://somalogic.com/technology/our-platform/

Plus no alcohol relationship to amuse me.

 

But if you brought in an alcoholic relationship to amuse you you would eventually be very amused with the measuring of biology in real time

 

Anyone running any trails this weekend?

 

I sympathize with your plight, but a couple comments for consideration:

• Part of the problem is that we keep putting up residential on areas that may be better used for mineral/oil extraction or farmland or whatever.
• Some of your righteousness and indignation (and totally understandable) should perhaps be redirected to the people who developed the land that you unknowingly bought with highly viable mineral and oil interests below the surface and no knowledge about the mineral extraction rights.
  
• My approach might look something like this: 1) Change the law to require disclosure by developers of the mineral rights below the surface and the viability of extraction...that way the market (ie. homebuyers) could take this into account when purchasing homes and would likely be reflected in the initial and ongoing sale prices. 2) For those homebuyers that have been previously duped into buying into developments that have viable fracking opportunities, we should probably consider changing of extraction rules for those specific areas so we dont exacerbate the situation. Odds of Colorado lawmakers agreeing on that are slim to none...but remember you get what you elect.
  
• The extraction of gas and oil and selling these abroad or at home -- believe it or not --drives down the prices here at home and across the globe. It is a global market and driven by global supply. The US has now become the #1 natural gas and #2 oil producer in the world in less than a decade even while the Obama administration was limiting public lands on which this could be done. This has several good impacts. Driving the cost of energy down, making us less dependent on foreign oil....which seems to be funding our islamic extremist 'friends'. The best way to reduce the islamic terror risk is to starve the beast. We are doing exactly that when we drive down prices and don't rely on others for oil and send billions and trillions there way (e.g. Saudi Arabia and many of the middle eastern oil producers).

I know this doesn't help you with your current situation and I would be pissed as well. But, I think you are directing you anger at the wrong entities. Those developers knew at the time they developed the land, they knew the mineral rights laws, and they probably had a darn good idea of the desirability of extraction. My guess is they didn't spend any time with the residential home buyers laying out these potential risks and any subsequent secondary sellers of used home. Those are the guys/gals that pulled a fast one....not the oil/gas extractors.

You also need to spend some time considering the collateral damage associated with other alternative forms of energy including battery packs, solar farms, rare metals extraction, power producing/transporting facilities, etc. None of this stuff comes for 'free'.

 

@SilvFx, when you buy a house in Colorado one of the documents you sign is a disclosure that you either are or are not buying the mineral rights to the parcel. The legislature passed a law (SB 14-009) in 2014 and it's been in effect since 2016. But a good title company should have that information at closing. We've had it in our two most recent sales/buys in 2003 and 2012.

Changing the split estate rules is opening a can of worms historically in the West. You might have better luck starting with something easy like water rights or open grazing. Mining is after all really why there is a Colorado at all.

 

Wooo

 

x2

 

I understand what you're saying but for starters no one is drilling in someone's backyard. They are drilling in open space that surrounds residential communities and elementary schools.

Regardless of the mineral rights of my property, which I was very well familiar with when I bought in 2002, there needs to be regulation in place for setbacks from residential and, in this case, schools.

The US imports most of our oil from Canada. Canada provides us with more oil than all of OPEC, 2.5x more than Saudi Arabia and Iraq combined. It's been this way for a very long time. And I'm pretty sure Canada is not funding the Taliban, Al Queada, ISIS, etc.

And the best way to stop relying on oil and gas is to shift the paradigm. But that's not happening.

 

Stunning intellectual abilities. Bravo.

 

Up in the air

 

You're no doubt aware of this, since 1951 the COGCC is the state regulator within the Dept of Natural Resources for these matters.

The current policies and rules on their website: http://cogcc.state.co.us/reg.html#/rules

It's all esoteric and legalese, but if there are things you want see changed you could petition them (or ask your rep or senator) or go to public hearings.

The most recent revision of rules for this stuff for which I'm aware was in 2013, when they changed the setback and mitigation rules, adding 500' and 1000' zones. For example there's a special exception zone around high occupancy buildings (such as a school, any location with 50 or more people) that is now 1,000'. If drilling is within that 1,000' zone there are additional things that have to happen, one of which is I believe there has to be a surface use agreement in place.

I'm not defending anyone here, but there are rules and the commission isn't totally in the tank for the oil & gas companies. But in the end their job is manage the resources, so their fundamental assumption is that the state's minerals are going to be extracted and they try to manage the impacts, so the results aren't necessarily going to match everyone's desires.