What is it about living in Park County that appeals to you? Is it the critters of all sizes running by the front of your house or the bright stars at night that you can almost reach out and touch unencumbered by the reflections from the lights of the big city? Maybe it’s the fresh air or the taste of the water from your well or the privacy still with proximity to bigger cities in every direction.
So here’s the question:
Rather than saying why you dislike those of us who label ourselves as Democrats, how about coming up with a positive list of why you continue to vote Republican? I can’t for the life of me understand why residents here keep voting against their own best interests and it’d be great to drop a letter to the Flume to hear your thoughts.
But before you rush to your writing instrument of choice, here are three current-event facts to ponder:
Park County Commissioners (of gas profits)
Earlier this week, Colorado Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate whether a dozen oil and gas service companies violated the Safe Water Act by using more than 32 million gallons of diesel fuel across 19 states in the controversial drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing. A year-long investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee found that more than a million gallons of diesel fuel was injected into the ground in Colorado by an oil and gas industry as a way to coerce natural gas up from the ground as part of a process called “fracking.”
Now, I can’t say for sure whether or not El Paso Exploration and Production Company uses diesel fuel in their fracking process – and under the Haliburton Loophole of 2005, named after the company former Vice President Dick Cheney headed, we don’t have to be told, either. But the company was granted permits by the Park County Board of Commissioners last year and if their exploratory wells pay off, the area in and around the James Mark Jones State Wildlife Area could see as many as 300 wells constructed on land owned by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Bureau of Land Management and private individuals. At a meeting with wildlife officials in mid-January residents from throughout the state came to Fairplay to seek assurances that the water supply here will remain pristine. But a week after I first wrote about the plan last year, the Flume reported on the millions of dollars that Park County stands to “earn” from the project.
Intermountain Rural and Gas Association (of scientific ostriches)
IREA elects a new slate of directors this spring, and it’s not too late to run. Potential candidates have until February 23 to gain 15 signatures and declare their candidacy.
Technically a non-partisan election, there is little doubt where the majority of this anti-environmental board running the electric company I’m a “member (owner)” of, comes from. Last month, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), ranking member on the House Committee of Energy and Commerce sought clarification concerning just who paid anti-global warming propagandist Dr. Patrick Michaels to testify before his committee in 2009. Michaels received $100,000 back in 2006 from IREA to provide, it appears, anti-global warming propaganda. Today, the board continues to try and cover its rear by claiming global warming is a myth while, at the same time, putting more and more money into Coal-produced energy.
Now, on the IREA web site, IREA claims that since there are no stockholders, profits are returned to its members through capital credit refund checks. None were issued last year. But IREA did spend thousands of member dollars to lobby in the Colorado Legislature against new laws to require better openness and transparency in their dealings. With the exception of incumbent Mike Kempe, who is the lone “progressive” on the board, the rest of the bunch need to be sent packing.
Moonlight Madness by the new Republican Colorado Secretary of State and Treasurer
Colorado's newly-elected Secretary of State, Scott Gessler, has announced his intention to continue working, part-time, for his old law firm to supplement his $68,500 state salary. The Secretary of State deals with and enforces Colorado election laws. The firm he represented, Hackstaff Law Group, is said to be “the most well-known elections and campaign law firms in town and distinguished for representing many Republican soft-money organizations." Colorado’s new State Treasurer, Walker Stapleton, announced that he also plans to moonlight at his old firm, a real estate investment company.
So, now, where were we?
This column was originally published in the February 4, 2011 edition of The Flume, the paper of record for Park County, Colorado. The monthly column is titled "Democratically Speaking"
This column was originally published in the February 4, 2011 edition of The Flume, the paper of record for Park County, Colorado. The monthly column is titled "Democratically Speaking"
