No on Proposition 112: It will hurt families, economy
Tarah Garza is a fifth generation Coloradan and a single mom of two teenagers. She’s an environmentalist who spends as much time in the Colorado outdoors as her busy schedule will allow.
Bo Winter, raised in Ault, spent a good chunk of his life farming the fields of northern Colorado, caring for the land and developing a deep respect for the environment.
Ken Meritt spent 19 years protecting his neighbors, and helping them in their times of need, as a Greeley firefighter. Safety is one of his top values.
All three of these Coloradans have their own unique stories and love for our great state. But one strong, unbreakable thread unites them: They all work in the oil and natural gas industry and they want to keep their jobs, producing the energy we all use and need every day to thrive in the 21st century.
Their voices must be heard in this debate over Proposition 112. After all, it is their jobs — their livelihoods — that are being placed on the line.
An extreme activist agenda, fueled by outofstate money, is threatening to put tens of thousands of oil and gas families — and scores of others outside the industry — out of work if Proposition 112 passes. Of the 147,000 Coloradans who could lose their jobs, more than 113,000 of them don’t even work in oil and natural gas, according to the newly released study commissioned by the Common Sense Policy Roundtable. We can’t let this happen.
An activist group, heavily funded by Boulder and Washington, D.C. interests, is pushing a rigid halfmile setback from oil and gas facilities to the nearest occupied structure, park, ball field, open space, stream, lake, intermittent stream — you name it. Right now, the setback is a safe 500 or 1,000 feet from a wellhead to the nearest occupied structure. Proposition 112 would radically increase the amount of surface area offlimits to responsible energy development by 26 times. The economic impacts of that are enormous.
Within 12 years, the state would lose $218 billion — yes, billion with a “b” — in GDP. Up to $98 billion in personal income would be lost, and over a 12year pe
riod $9 billion in state and local tax revenues would disappear.
It will hurt our state government, local governments, fire districts, school districts, water districts, and the litany of other services Coloradans rely on every day — all made possible by the energy sector’s contributions to our state’s economy. If 112 passes, it would put 94 percent of private land in the top 5 oil and gas producing counties off limits to new development. With no opportunities for waivers or exceptions, Proposition 112 would be devastating to our economy, to our communities, and to Colorado families. Money for schools, parks, rec centers, and libraries likely would dry up and blow to Wyoming, North
Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Proponents will tell you this initiative is about public health and safety. But that’s simply not true. Colorado’s state health department has verified repeatedly, through extensive measurements, that current setback requirements ensure the health and safety of Coloradans.
When the state health department studied 10,000 air samples in oil and gas areas, it concluded that “All measured air concentrations were below shortand longterm safe levels.” There is no credible study that says 2,500 feet is a beneficial setback distance. Proposition 112 is solely about banning business.
Oil and natural gas is a safe industry that is only getting safer with new technology and constant innovation. No one knows that more than industry employees.
Bo Winter ensures his company’s sites “comply with all regulations. We do this not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because this is the community that we were born and raised in. We would never do anything to hurt our community.”
“We don’t have to choose between having oil and gas development or having safe communities,” said Meritt, the former firefighter.
Job statistics can be sterile. Nameless, faceless numbers. But when considering your vote on Proposition 112, think of Tarah, and Bo, and Ken, and of thousands of hardworking men and women in the oil and natural gas industry who produce the energy that drives our world.
Please stand up for them, and for all working families. These are not just numbers, these are our neighbors.