So now Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado seems to be a weaker candidate for reelection in 2014, after his billion dollar tax hike was rejected by two-thirds of Colorado voters. However, I think his weakness stems not from the popularity of his conservative opposition, but rather the weak support he is getting from his base. Hickenlooper is a former oil-industry geologist who touts natural gas as a clean-burning bridge fuel to a renewable energy future, and that stand has turned off natural constituencies in these "progressive and moderate" towns by siding time and again with the drillers over the residents of the towns north of Denver all the way to Wyoming. Most of those towns have voted to outlaw fracking within city limits.
The Julie Rideout photo above was taken from an article in The Colorado Independent by John Tomasic entitled Frack Attacks. Tomasic writes,
The votes in these towns come in response to the way drillers have moved into the region’s urban areas, setting up high-traffic well pads just a stone’s throw from homes, schools and scenic preserves. Residents see officials at all levels of government repeatedly failing to address what they see as real threats to their health, safety and property values. Meantime, the truck convoys continue to pass at a regular clip along formerly sleepy neighborhood roads. Drilling starts and doesn’t stop for months at a time. Lights, noise, fumes and flares throw shadows on bedroom walls, foul the air and rattle the windows day and night.
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