The Colorado Attorney General’s Office this morning made good on its threat to sue Boulder County’s elected commissioners if they did not end their moratorium on new oil and gas development by last Friday.
Attorney General Cynthia Coffman asked the Boulder District Court to declare that Boulder County’s current moratorium — set to expire on May 1 — is preempted by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Act and state regulations.
In the lawsuit filed by Colorado Solicitor General Frederick Yarger, the attorney general also asked the court to permanently enjoin Boulder County from enforcing the current moratorium and from creating “any similar moratorium or restriction on new oil or gas development.”
The Attorney General’s Office contends that Boulder County’s present moratorium — the latest in a set of moratoria the county commissioners originally imposed in February 2012 and have extended a number of times in the years since — is illegal.
The county has countered that its current extension is legal and was needed in order to complete updates to its restrictions and conditions about oil and gas development in unincorporated Boulder County.
The county also has said it would defend that position in court, if Coffman were to proceed with litigation.
Boulder County spokeswoman Barbara Halpin said in an email early this afternoon that the county got a copy of the complaint “just prior to its release to the news media. The county attorney’s office is reviewing it, and the county will release a statement this afternoon after the attorneys have discussed it.”
In a news release, Coffman’s office said that in the five years since the initial moratorium was put in place, Boulder County commissioners have re-imposed or extended it eight separate times.
The commissioners adopted two of those extensions after Colorado Supreme Court rulings last May against Fort Collins’ voter-approved five-year moratorium on fracking and Longmont’s voter-approved fracking ban — rulings in which the Attorney General’s Office held that “local bans on oil or gas development are preempted if they conflict with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Act, which regulates all aspects of oil and gas development and operations within the state.”
After those Supreme Court rulings, Coffman’s office said in its news release, “other local governments acted to lift similar bans — except for Boulder County.”
While Boulder County commissioners and County Attorney Ben Pearlman have said that more time was needed to draft regulations and prepare to accept new applications for oil and gas development, the Attorney General’s Office said in the news release that “five years is more than reasonable time to complete such a project.”
Since Boulder County “continues to operate in clear violation of Colorado law,” Coffman filed her lawsuit “to compel compliance,” her office said.
Some critics of Coffman’s threat — including state Sens. Matt Jones, D-Louisville, and Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, and state Rep. Mike Foote, D-Lafayette — have charged that she was acting on behalf of the oil and gas industry and that the industry could pursue legal action on its own, if it chose.
But Coffman’s office said in its news release: “It is not the job of industry to enforce Colorado law. That is the role of the attorney general on behalf of the people of Colorado.”
Dan Haley, president of an industry organization, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said in a statement that Coffman’s lawesuit is “not about drilling, or fracking or pipelines, it’s about the law.”
“And the law is clear,” Haley said. “Long-term moratoriums — and this one is over five years now — are illegal. Boulder County shouldn’t be surprised that the attorney general cares about the rule of law in Colorado.”
John Fryar: 303-684-5211, jfryar@times-call.com or twitter.com/jfryartc
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