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Aug 23, 2019 · BOULDER, Colo. – A Boulder County judge on Friday granted a motion to re-open a case over the fracking ban in Longmont, leading to the possibility that an injunction on the ban could be lifted and setting up perhaps a precedent-setting court fight. The activist groups Colorado Rising and Our Longmont filed the motion earlier this month ...
- Jennifer Kovaleski
- Denver7 Multimedia Investigative Journalist
- Jennifer.Kovaleski@denver7.com
In Longmont v. COGA, et al. the Supreme Court clarified that prior to analyzing whether there is a conflict between state law and a local law, a court must determine whether the regulated matter at issue is one of state, local, or mixed state and local concern. The Court found under the four-part test that the Longmont fracking ban implicated a ...
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Kansas: Legislators pass Energy Choice Act, preempting city of Lawrence's renewable energy transition plan
In 2021, the Kansas Energy Choice Act became law. Gov. Laura Kelly (D) did not sign or veto the legislation, which passed the legislature with a veto-proof majority.The Act states: “A municipality shall not impose any ordinance, resolution, code, rule, provision, standard, permit, plan or any other binding action that prohibits, discriminates against, restricts, limits, impairs, or has the effect thereof, an end use customer's use of a public utility based upon the source of energy to be deli...
Colorado: District court rules against Longmont hydraulic fracking ban
On November 1, 2020, district Judge Judith LaBuda ruled against reinstating a voter-approved hydraulic fracking ban in Longmont.In 2012, voters in Longmont passed Question 300, which stated: The ban had previously been struck down by the Colorado Supreme Court in 2016. However, in 2019, the Colorado General Assembly passed Senate Bill 19-181, which provided for increased local control over the use of land for fracking as it pertained to its surface effects on communities, health and safety, a...
Arizona: State passes law preempting natural gas bans, parts of a Flagstaff climate plan
On February 21, 2020, Governor Doug Ducey (R) signed HB2686 into law. The bill preempted the local regulation of energy utilities in building construction, saying: “a municipality may not impose a fine, penalty, or other requirement that has the effect of restricting a utility prover’s authority to operate or serve customers.”The law was the first of its kind passed at the state level. The bill’s sponsor, State Speaker of the House Russell Bowers(R), said: “We’re trying to make sure all of ou...
Pennsylvania: Commonwealth Court rules in favor of Allegheny Township in zoning dispute
A dispute over the Allegheny Township zoning board's decision to allow fracking in each of the town's zoning districts ended with the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania declining to hear an appeal challenging the board's decision in June 2019. The challenge arose from a group of local residents opposed to the construction of a fracking well pad in their area, which had been zoned for R-2 agricultural-residential use. After an unsuccessful appeal before the township zoning board, the group took the...
Colorado: Judge dismisses suit against Boulder County
In May 2017, a Boulder County District Court dismissed a lawsuit filed against the county by Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman (R). According to the suit, the county's moratorium on new oil and gas development bucked a 2016 state supreme court ruling preempting local oil and gas bans that conflicted with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Act. The county filed a motion to dismiss the suit on the grounds that the moratorium had expired on May 1, 2017, and District Court Judge Norma...
Mayors call for local fracking control
Thirty-three mayors, including Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts (D), Portland Mayor Charlie Hales (D), and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto(D), issued a statement in June 2016 seeking greater local control over fracking. The statement argued that city residents should be allowed to regulate or prohibit drilling over health and environmental concerns. It said:
West Virginia: Federal judge overturns county fracking waste disposal ban
Federal Judge John Copenhaver struck down Fayette County's fracking waste disposal ban in June 2016, on the grounds that it was preempted by state and federal law. The petroleum company EQT Production Company had filed suit over the ban. Fayette County Commission President Matt Wender told The Fayette Tribunethat the commission was not permitted to testify prior to the ruling. "I'm most disappointed that we cannot present information about the many health concerns about injection wells that h...
Louisiana: Supreme court refuses hearing on oil drilling in St. Tammany Parish
In June 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court voted 4-3 against hearing an appeal of district and circuit court rulings upholding the issuance of a state drilling permit to the New Orleanscompany Helis Oil & Gas. St. Tammany Parish had attempted to use zoning ordinances to block the Helis project. The lower courts found that the parish's ordinances were preempted by state oil and gas regulations. St. Tammany Parish filed suit against the Helis project in June 2014 due to concerns that it would po...
Texas: State legislators preempt local bans on fracking
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed an oil and gas preemption bill, House Bill 40, on May 18, 2015. The bill was introduced in response to a November 2014 ballot measure banning fracking in Denton. In a press release announcing the signing, Abbott said, "This law ensures that Texas avoids a patchwork quilt of regulations that differ from region to region, differ from county to county or city to city. HB 40 strikes a meaningful and correct balance between local control and preserving the state’s...
Jun 1, 2021 · This would seem to allow a local fracking ban. A fossil fuel extraction site is visible near a home in Broomfield on June 24, 2020. (Andy Bosselman for Colorado Newsline) The Democratic sponsors of SB-181 were at pains to assure skeptics that the law wouldn’t lead to fracking bans. But the law’s language is what it is.
DENVER (AP) — Colorado's battle over who should regulate fracking could be on the fast track to the state Supreme Court. The Colorado Court of Appeals on Monday asked to bow out of lawsuits over Longmont's ban on fracking and a 5-year-moratorium in Fort Collins. The move would allow the Supreme Court to take the cases immediately, without waiting for the appeals court to hear arguments and ...
May 2, 2016 · The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that locals bans and moratoriums on fracking are "invalid and unenforceable." 1 weather alerts 1 closings/delays. Watch Now
Aug 14, 2019 · BOULDER, Colo. – Two activist groups have filed a motion in Boulder District Court seeking to have Longmont’s fracking ban, which was approved by voters in 2012 but overturned in 2014 and 2016 court decisions, reinstated after the passage of a new local control oil and gas law this year – setting up perhaps a precedent-setting court fight.
