Longmont’s City Council is to consider taking a formal stand Tuesday night against a proposed state law that could make Colorado’s local governments liable for paying oil and gas mineral rights holders the market values of those rights if a city, town or county government bans hydraulic fracturing.
Windsor Republican Rep. Perry Buck’s House Bill 17-1124 — which would also require local governments to compensate oil and gas operators, mineral rights owners and royalties holders for lost revenues if those cities, towns or counties impose moratoria on oil and gas exploration — is up for a House committee hearing on Wednesday afternoon.
Longmont has neither a fracking ban nor an oil and gas development moratorium in place now, after last May’s Colorado Supreme Court rulings that Longmont’s voter-approved fracking ban and Fort Collins’ voter-approved five-year fracking moratorium were preempted by state law.
Boulder County has had a series of oil and gas development moratoriums in place for unincorporated parts of the county since February 2012.
Boulder County’s current moratorium against accepting and processing new applications for oil and gas development is set to expire on May 1, but Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, in a lawsuit filed last Tuesday, contended that the county’s moratorium is illegal.
In a memo for Tuesday night’s Longmont City Council meeting, the city staff did not cite the Supreme Court decisions. Nor did it mention the legal dispute over Boulder County’s moratorium.
Assistant City Manager Sandra Seader wrote, however, that “based on past conversations,” Buck’s House Bill 17-1124 “is not aligned with the City Council’s actions.” The city staff has requested that the council vote to take a position opposing the bill.
Buck, whose House District 49 includes parts of Larimer and Weld counties, including Berthoud and Mead, said in an interview that her bill is based on the idea that oil and gas mineral rights should have the same legal status as other private property rights when it comes to the owners of those rights losing income or property because of government actions.
“If government comes in and wants to build a highway across your front yard, they have to compensate you,” Buck said. “It’s nothing less than a taking if they don’t.”
Buck’s oil and gas compensation bill, which also is opposed by the Colorado Municipal League, will be heard by the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, a panel with six Democrats and three Republicans.
The committee’s chairman is Rep. Mike Foote, D-Lafayette, and one of its committee members is Rep. Edie Hooton, D-Boulder. Both of them, along with other Democrats in Boulder County’s legislative delegation, issued statements last week criticizing Coffman for her lawsuit against Boulder County.
Similar Buck-sponsored, mineral-rights compensation bills have twice died in the Democratic-controlled House committee in previous legislative sessions. She said on Monday that “I don’t have a good feeling” about her latest measure’s chances when it comes to a vote in the committee.
However, she said she introduced this year’s measure to continue to send a message about how she and her bill’s supporters bills believe that local governments’ oil and gas bans and moratoriums violate private property rights.
If Buck’s bill were to pass all its legislative hurdles and became law, it would not take effect until August. It would not apply retroactively to any compensation for lost income that mineral rights holders and oil and gas operators might claim resulted from moratoriums or bans were in place prior to August.
John Fryar: 303-684-5211, jfryar@times-call.com or twitter.com/jfryartc
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