[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: FW: Need a statement

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Weaver, Sam


Fellow Council members and Hotline readers,
 
I received the email included at the end of this message from Kurtis Lee, a reporter from the Denver Post, who then called and asked for my comments.  I gave them to him, and gave him the cell phone numbers for Lisa Morzel and Matt Appelbaum so that he could
 get additional input.  The piece forwarded describes a proposed initiative measure to ban the distribution of oil and gas severance taxes to communities that enact oil and gas extraction moratoriums or bans.
 
Generally, I see these severance taxes as payments to communities in Colorado for the negative external impacts of the extraction process that are imposed on localities and regions.  In addition to local impacts such as degradation of groundwater, noise,
 dust, increased traffic, and day-lighted industrial operations proximate to homes, schools, and cities, the extraction process produces regional and global impacts such as increased ozone pollution, escape of VOC's and methane, increased competition for water,
 massive unregulated contaminated waste disposal impacts, and the eventual emission of CO2 when the products are consumed.  Generally the profits from these operations are private, while the impacts are socialized, and the (too-low) Colorado severance taxes
 need to be used as they can to remediate the harm caused, either directly or indirectly.  Some of that harm is regional, and thus even communities that do not experience the direct local impacts of oil and gas extraction have some claims to the severance taxes
 collected.  I applaud the new air quality rules on oil and gas extraction that Colorado is enacting, and encourage the legislature to instead refer a measure to increase severance taxes to levels equivalent to what Wyoming imposes to fund community needs,
 especially those created by oil and gas extraction.
 
All the best,
 


Sam Weaver
Member of Boulder City Council
weavers at bouldercolorado.gov
Phone: 303-416-6130




From: Kurtis Lee [klee at denverpost.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2014 3:43 PM
To: Weaver, Sam
Subject: Need a statement






I needed a statement from you in regard to release below. Kurtis Lee: 719-310-3389








SONNENBERG, MCNULTY: END OIL AND GAS PAYMENTS TO COMMUNITIES WITH OIL AND GAS BANS
 

Legislators file Initiative for 2014 ballot to ensure energy funds return to the communities where they are generated and are not misdirected to communities that ban energy development.
 
 
DENVER, Colo., March 20, 2014-- Saying it isn't fair or legitimate for communities that ban responsible oil and
 gas development to receive the tax revenue benefits of oil and gas production taking place in other parts of Colorado, State Representative Jerry Sonnenberg and former House Speaker Frank McNulty announced today that they will file an initiative for the 2014
 ballot that would bar the State from directing energy taxes to communities that ban energy development.
Said Sonnenberg, "This issue is one of common sense and fairness - if a community decides to ignore all the science and all the facts and ban responsible energy development,
 those communities shouldn't be able to line up at the trough and benefit from responsible oil and gas development occurring in other parts of the State. It is the height of hypocrisy for the Boulders and Ft. Collins of the world to benefit from oil and gas
 taxes so long as they have an oil and gas ban in place."
"The name of our issue committee sums it up - Energy Bans Hurt Communities," said McNulty. "While only a small handful of liberal communities have taken the draconian, anti-science
 step of banning hydraulic fracturing and energy development, the policy is an important one - if you adopt Sierra Club type energy bans that hurt our communities and our schools, don't expect energy revenues to pick up your tab. Boulder and Ft. Collins can
 and should pay for those services themselves."
 
If passed by the voters in November, this initiative would prohibit local jurisdictions from receiving energy funds while bans or moratoriums are in effect. 
 "This initiative creates a fair process that also allows communities to begin sharing in these funds again, as soon as the bans or moratoriums are lifted," added McNulty.
 
According to State economists, severance tax revenues are surging thanks to growth in the oil and gas sector spurred by advances in hydraulic fracturing.
 
In 2012/13, the state collected $138 million in severance taxes, a number that is projected to surge to $208 million this year, peaking at $275 million
 in 2015/16.
 
A significant share of these revenues are given out to communities by the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) through a process where cities and counties
 make grant requests for a range of programs and projects.  In the last several years, some of the most ardently anti-oil and gas development local jurisdictions have been the most eager chasers of severance tax dollars through the DOLA grant program.
 
In addition to funding a range of general programs and activities through the State's general fund, severance tax and federal mineral lease revenues also
 fund a series of grant and formula driven programs administered by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.  Under the Energy Bans Hurt Communities Initiative, jurisdictions that impose bans would not be eligible to receive funding from these sources in the
 way that the pro-ban communities have in the past.
 
For example, between 2008 and 2001, the communities of Boulder, Longmont and Ft. Collins, all communities that later imposed energy bans, received large
 grants from DOLA's "energy impact assistance fund" as part of a "New Energy Communities Initiative".
 
The City of Boulder, Boulder County and the City of Ft. Collins receive direct distributions annually under DOLA's formula-driven program.
 
In 2009, Ft. Collins requested $900,000 and received $200,000 in "energy impact assistance funds" for the Ft. Collins Museum and Science Center.
 
The City of Brighton, which earlier this month imposed a 4 month ban on energy development despite the 355 Brighton employees who work in the oil and gas
 sector, just last year received $77,000 in formula-driven severance tax funding and a $150,000 road improvement grant.  Brighton has a long history of chasing severance tax grants -- in 2008, the community received approximately $2 million to expand county
 roads 4 and 6.
 
So long as Ft. Collins, Boulder and Brighton had a ban in place, they would not be eligible to receive these grants or direct payments if the initiative
 were to pass.
 
Sonnenberg expressed confidence that they will be able to mobilize support to get the measure on the ballot and win its passage.
 
"There is a winning coalition for this initiative in November," the Sterling Representative concluded.  "Rural Colorado has been jilted by Denver more times
 than any of us can count.  Conservative communities like Douglas and El Paso County are tired of the black eye that Boulder and Ft. Collins are giving the entire state. Swing communities will see this as a simple fairness issue, and working class voters in
 communities like Pueblo and Adams Counties are fed up with these Boulder fractivists attacking their livelihood."




-- 

Political reporter
The Denver Post
o: (303) 954-1655

@kurtisalee