NADOA
Legal Updates
COLORADO || ANTI-OIL AND GAS INITIATIVES FAIL TO MAKE THE BALLOT By: Rona Erickson, CDOA
Signatures for two proposed Colorado ballot initiatives have failed to achieve the minimum number of required signatures to make the November ballot. A 5% random sample did not project the number of valid signatures to be greater than 110% of the total number of signatures required for placement. Initiative 75 would have granted local municipalities the ability to say whether they want new wells, hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas operations in their city, town or county limits. Initiative 78 would have amended the Colorado constitution to prohibit drilling, fracturing and other operations within 2,500 feet of any inhabited structure, waterways and other areas. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, presently tasked with oversight of setbacks, indicates that replacing the current 500 foot setback with a mandatory 2,500 foot buffer zone would remove 90% of the state from possible new oil and gas development. In an August 29 press release, Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams announced “Supporters didn’t collect enough valid voter signatures. Citizens who are trying to get an issue on the ballot must submit 98,492 voter signatures. Supporters of the two measures collected more than that for each proposal, but not enough to compensate for the number of signatures that were rejected during the random sample.”
Further, the Secretary of State reported that the petition processing team identified a petition section in Initiative 78 that contains several potentially forged signature lines. “Although the Secretary of State does not conduct signature verification when reviewing petitions, our office has referred the questionable section to the Attorney General’s office for investigation.”
J. Mark Gresham CDOA, CMM
O I L
& G A S
R O Y A L T I E S
Buying Minerals & Royalties since 1977 in Texas • Oklahoma • New Mexico and Other States
Member: NADOA • HADOA • NARO • OK-NARO • AMERICAN ROYALTY COUNCIL (ARC)
P.O. Box 662 Wharton, Texas 77488-0662 979.532.1485 JMG992@prodigy.net
1 0
Na t i o n a l A s s o c i a t i o n o f D i v i s i o n O r d e r An a l y s t s
Made with FlippingBook Online document