About the Authors:
Melissa Munson Melissa Munson practices in the areas of business and energy and natural resources law. Her practice focuses on energy transactions, including those involving oil and gas exploration and production and upstream and midstream asset acquisitions and dispositions. Melissa’s transactional experience includes advising clients in connection with the formation of joint ventures and joint development projects, general corporate matters including entity formation and corporate formalities, and other commercial transactions. She also has experience conducting due diligence on energy assets and corporate entities. Melissa.munson@steptoe-johnson.com Garrett Korbitz Garrett Korbitz is an Associate with Steptoe & Johnson, PLLC, who focuses his practice in the area of energy transactional law. Garrett.korbitz@steptoe-johnson.com
COLORADO PROPOSITION 112
Proposition 112 would have expanded existing oil and gas drilling setbacks from 500 feet from homes and 1,000 feet from “high occupancy” buildings to a mandatory 2,500 feet around “vulnerable areas” and “occupied structures”. On November 6, 2018, with 100 percent of counties reporting, the measure failed by a 57% to 43% margin. The final tally indicated an even narrower margin of 55.11% to 44.89%. Amendment 74 was also defeated, trailing 54% to 46%. This amendment would have modified Colorado’s constitution to allow property owners to seek compensation from government any time a government action or regulation devalues a person’s property. Colorado voters followed a national trend as voters in Arizona and Washington also turned down measures that would have curbed fossil fuel development. In its post-election analysis, The Washington Post wrote these defeats “underscore the difficulty of tackling a global problem like climate change at the state and local level, where huge sums of money poured in”.
Pro-renewable energy, anti-fracking forces are not giving up in Colorado and according to Russell Mendell, a spokesperson for Colorado Rising, which backed Prop. 112, activists are “going to keep fighting”. “We are going to hold our elected leaders accountable, and do all we can to protect Colorado communities from the dangers of fracking,” said Mendell, who pointed out that although the measure failed, at least 825,000 voters across the state supported it. The anti-112 oil-and-gas-backed issue committee, Protect Colorado, campaigned against the measure saying it would ban oil and gas development and cause the state to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs. Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, called Tuesday’s vote a “good night for Colorado’s economy and working families.” Protect Colorado did support Amendment 74, one of the few industry-backed measures nationwide that failed Tuesday.
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G r o w t h T h r o u g h E d u c a t i o n - O c t o b e r / N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 8
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