A Colorado ballot initiative that would sharply increase the required distance between new oil wells and populated areas will face the state's voters in November, Colorado officials said Aug. 28.
The proposal, opposed as anti-fracking by oil and gas producers, would require new projects to be at least 2,500 ft (762 m) from buildings, parks and certain wildlife areas. The state currently requires as little as 500 ft (152 m) of separation.
A 2,500-ft setback would render about 85% of all new oil and gas development on non-federal lands in the state off-limits to drilling, according to a 2016 study by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, a state agency.
Colorado Rising, a group behind the initiative, submitted 123,195 verified signatures, above the 98,492 required, state officials said Aug. 28.
A similar initiative failed to get on the 2016 ballot. The following April, two men were killed by an explosion caused by gas leaking from an abandoned well about 170 ft (52 m) from their Firestone, Colo., home. Supporters of the initiative say there have been 13 explosions and fires since then.
"The climate in regards to oil and gas has really shifted quite a bit since the Firestone explosion," Anne Lee Foster, a volunteer with Colorado Rising, said Aug. 28.
Opponents argue the proposal would cost Colorado's economy between $169 billion and $217 billion over the next 12 years and reduce state and local tax revenues by between $7 billion and $9 billion. It would also affect an estimated 147,800 jobs, a July 2018 report by free-enterprise group Common Sense Policy Roundtable said.
"The impact of the measure would ripple through the whole economy," said Karen Crummy, a spokeswoman for Protect Colorado, a group backed by the oil and gas industry and opposed to the ballot initiative.
"It's just hard to conceive that the intent of this is anything other than to get rid of oil and gas development," Crummy said.
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