Thanks to over 60 of you who participated in Boulder Eco-Dharma Sangha (EDS) and Shanahan Neighbors for Climate Action (SNCA) event on fracking in Boulder county or watched online on April 8th. This page includes

–A brief summary of our main takeaways
–PDF version of presentation made by Suzanne and Russell, our two young sacred warrior speakers (see slides here)
— Resources for taking actions (contact county commissioners, donate for legal defense, host neighborhood gatherings and write editors)
— Spiritually rooted non-violent direct action (or civil disobedience) discussion meeting and pledge to show up (see Pledge here)
— Contact information for employees of Crestone peak resources, the first company that will start drilling in Boulder county as early as first week of May.
— A few photographs from the event

Summary of main takeaways

(see speaker slides):

—- History of oil and gas operations in the nation and CO:
– Due to pressure from industry, fracking is exempt from many federal environmental laws (see complete list here) which has given fracking industry permission to pollute our drinking and recreational waters, soils and air.
– Many big green organizations promoted fracking because they bought into the notion that methane’s climate and air pollution impacts will be much lower than that of coal and fracked gas can be a bridge fuel while renewable technology is being developed. For example, Sierra club launched “Beyond coal” campaign.
– CO democratic alliance (between big environmental groups, industry and democrats trying to turn CO blue) pushed fracking in CO and defeated anti-fracking ballot measures. See very detailed well-researched article that charts the alliance between big greens, top democrats and oil and gas industry is here.
– Boulder passed fracking moratorium in 2013 but the state Attorney General has sued the Boulder county because she considers the moratoriums illegal under current state law. Boulder county has passed very strong regulations but these regulations can be preempted.

—- Health impacts: Many chemicals added to the fracking fluid and as a result air around the oil and gas wells contains many toxic substances that cause birth defects, cancer, infant mortality and health, and impacts lungs, endocrine system, nerves and heart. When people (especially those with compromised immune systems) are exposed to multiple chemicals even the chemicals are at low concentration, harsh physical, mental and psychological impacts are observed. One can see stories of many people living close to wells here.

—- Environmental/climate impacts: Even though fracked natural gas was touted as a bridge fuel which would have less climate impacts that coal, a number of recent studies show that the high leakage rate of methane means that the climate impacts of fracking are sometimes more than climate impacts of coal, especially in the short-term because one molecule of methane is 86 times more warming than one molecule of carbon dioxide. Please see slides for impacts on ground and surface water quantity and quality, air quality (including ozone formation), impacts on wildlife and more!

—- Legal issues: We can assert our rights legally; the rights of “we the people” have not yet been tried against the rights of oil and gas development. Attorney Dan Leftwich of MindDrive Legal and part of the Our Children’s Trust team, is working to protect us from fracking through legal measures. His goal is to use our constitutional rights and our “already-made” investments into open space in Boulder as protection against fracking. We have constitutional rights to protect our health, safety, property and environment. We can evoke precautionary principle. We have also invested over $100M in Boulder County on open space and this has created a public trust that is above state laws and can’t be preempted like city/county rights. The good news is that (after losing both at the agency level and the district level), recently, the Colorado state appeals court ruled in favor of the Our Children’s Trust (Martinez vs. COGCC) that the entire state must protect health and environment before allowing oil and gas drilling (see more here) which has positive implications for Boulder county. To learn more about legal strategies we want to use going forward in detail, check out this video interview with Dan Leftwich (legal issues especially between 20 to 35 and then 45 to 50 minutes)

—- Action items (see below)

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Street art in Mexico featuring opposition of fracking by Tlaloc (Aztec god of groundwater and agriculture)

Action Items

— Send an Email to Boulder County commisioners: Send your comments to the Boulder county commissioners demanding that they 1) extend the moratorium in the light of the recent victory of the Martinez case such that all development is done “in a manner consistent with the protection of public health, safety, welfare and the environment, including wildlife; and 2) use our >100 million in open space tax-funds to support the lawsuit to defend open space (our charter says that open space is only to be used for agricultural uses, passive recreation and environmental conservation). We have the right to defend this contract in court!: oilgascomment@bouldercounty.org

— Create community & host a gathering: Please spread this information in an enjoyable way. Host your own creative gathering in your living room with your neighbors and/or friends and loved ones.

— Learn about non-violent direct action rooted in dharma/buddhism/spiritual oneness: Come to Ecodharma sangha’s meeting from 1:45 PM to 4:15 PM on April 16th in Flagstaff room in Main public library on where we will discuss dharmic approach to NVDA (challenging status-quo after transformation of anger or fear) .

— Take a NVDA (Non-violent direct action) training
(We endorse NVDA/Civil disobedience only when it is rooted in self-transformation and non-duality and is a form of prayer/meditation).

— Sunday, April 23 – NVDA training with Robert Chenate at Four Winds American Indian Council, 201 W 5th Ave, Denver, CO
— Sunday, April 23: All day training by East Boulder County United. See their Facebook page for more detailed information about their upcoming trainings.
— May 20-21: NVDA and creating encampments Overnight Workshop begins May 20, and ends May 21 at Woodbine Ecology Center
— Sign and circulate Frack Free Colorado’s Pledge of Resistance (see here): Circulate the Pledge of Resistance, especially in threatened areas like Gunbarrel and get people to pledge to show up to marches, resistance actions including NVDA. This will allow us to create a list of people to invite to NVDA trainings and prepare people to protect their community.

— Support legal work: Support the legal work by donating to Dan Leftwich and his legal team to protect Boulder County from fracking based on the multi-pronged approach discussed at the meeting. You may send a check directly to Mind Drive Legal Services LLC, 1295 Wildwood Rd, Boulder CO 80305.

— Write local CO newspapers See addresses and ideas for letters to editors here

— Contact Crestone peak resources: The first company to get drilling permit for up to 216 wells in Gunbarrel (Boulder County). See details and contact info below.

Quetzalcoatl: Feathered Aztec God of Wind engulfing the symbol of oil and gas operations

Information on Crestone Peak Resources

The DIRTIEST OIL & GAS COMPANY in the entire state of Colorado is poised to begin fracking in Boulder County May 1st. The location is 12 townships located between County Line Road (East) to past 287 (West), and Oxford Rd (North) almost to Jasper Rd (South) (link). CRESTONE PEAK RESOURCES is responsible for a full 53% of total complaints in the state of Colorado, thats 127 complaints from November 15, 2016 until today. There is an alarming number of complaints for odor—strong chemical odors that indicate airborne toxins that are certainly affecting the health of nearby residents. Additional complaints are for noise, lighting, lack of response and garbage left along roads.

November 15, 2016 is an important date because that is the date that complaints listed on the COGCC complaints search too begin being attributed to CRESTONE PEAK RESOURCES rather than ENCANA. ENCANA sold all of its Denver Julesberg (DJ) Basin acreage to CRESTONE PEAK RESOURCES, comprising 51,000 net acres, in 2016 for $900 million. So CRESTONE PEAK RESOURCES has assumed the operations of ENCANA in the DJ Basin. There is a 5850% increase in complaints attributed to Crestone/Encana during the four months before and after the November 15, 2016 date.

Furthermore CRESTONE PEAK RESOURCES is a FOREIGN ENTITY, 95 percent owned by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and five percent by The Broe Group of Denver. So why does a Canadian Company have the right to come into our local communities and pollute the air, water and eco-systems; damage public health and serenity; and contribute to global warming so Canadians can reap the profits of our communities destruction.

Also the new CEO of Crestone, TONY BUCHANAN was most recently was executive vice president and chief operating officer at Bonanza Creek Energy. Bonanza Creek Energy went BANKRUPT—they claim this was the result of declining oil prices, but leadership failed to predict the decline and left shareholders and creditors hanging for $850 million, shareholders equity went from 100% to 4.5%. And who was left to clean everything up—local communities?

The regulations enacted by the Boulder County Commissioners will not make fracking safe for our community and ecosystems—and Crestone has shown that it doesn’t follow regulations anyway.

CRESTONE PEAK RESOURCES OPERATING LLC – #10633, 1801 CALIFORNIA STREET #2500, DENVER , CO 80202 USA, PHONE (720) 410-8500; FAX (720) 410-8510; Community 720-410-8537 Firestone Office 303-774-3900