Archives for 2012
adult behavior
We have rights. As Americans we have the freedom to make agreements, to make promises, and to bargain with each other for mutual advantage. When we give a promise and receive something of value for it, we can use the courts to enforce those agreements. This is what free citizens do in a free country.
What citizens should not do in a free country is run like helpless children to the government for protection when each new challenge comes along.
Governments are made up of people no more smart or capable than you and me. What they have is rigid, uniform, arbitrary, black and white LAW, and power. People are flexible, diverse, and subtle.
Citizens engaged in working the problem to make our land better cannot be sufficiently anticipated by a rigid code of government regulations, no matter how artfully drawn.
The Founding Fathers understood this so they wrote a Constitution of negative law to limit the power of government and leave men free to live and work. They also knew that citizens in a pure democracy would push for ever more government to the detriment of freedom and our republic. At the planning commission meeting last Thursday, many were there proving the point.
Citizens can and will protect their own interests and their own resources better than government can, and that applies to all issues including: safety, the environment, health, maximum economic benefit, effective utilization, and preservation of all of our resources.
Citizens do this because it’s in their interest to do so. Government is merely a third party with no stake—government is just not as motivated to protect our property as we are.
Don’t give them more power over us. It’s a poor bargain. You won’t get the protection you expect and they won’t ever relinquish the power they take. You will burden us forever with more expensive, unproductive, and arbitrary bureaucracy.
This code of oil and gas regulations presumptively treats every citizen in Elbert County like a criminal. We are not criminals, and we are not merely applicants. We are free American citizens who can write our own contracts and protect ourselves. And we don’t need a ruler to tell us what we can do.
Look how this oil and gas lessor protected his interest. He wrote a one page addendum to his lease that fully protects his interests. This is how adults solve problems responsibly. Responsible citizens don’t run to government planners and clamor in public meetings for 60-page monstrosities of zoning law to provide environmental lawyers and planners with an endless pool of aggrieved litigants.
sunset county oil and gas zoning
the planners attorney
Jerry Dahl, an attorney employed by the Elbert County Community and Development Services Department, advises the public about his stance on county oil and gas regulation, at the Planning Commission meeting last night, 1/26/2012.
Audio here: Jerry Dahl at EC Planning Comm 1_26_2012.wmv
It is reasonable to conclude from his remarks that Mr. Dahl is promoting a county “right” to further regulate oil and gas development, and that he foresees the need for the county to litigate the question.
As an attorney Mr. Dahl represents his client’s interest, and the client is Richard Miller, the director of the Community and Development Services Department. Mr. Miller introduced Mr. Dahl and it is fair to conclude that Mr. Dahl accurately represented Mr. Miller’s interest.
So, the director of planning wants to regulate oil and gas development at the county level, and he’s hired an adversarial attorney who shares that interest.
And who are the people to be regulated by these forces? You and me. The county has an attorney sworn to zealously defend their interest, because all attorneys take an oath to zealously defend their clients’ interests, against you and me.
Should our tax money be used to fund an adversarial legal process that is aimed at us?
History repeats
Hitler told the Reichstag
“The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures…The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one.”
He also promised an end to unemployment and pledged to promote peace with France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. But in order to do all this, Hitler said, he first needed the Enabling Act.
Enabling Act, Article 1
In addition to the procedure prescribed by the constitution, laws of the Reich may also be enacted by the government of the Reich.
Enabling Act, Article 2
Laws enacted by the government of the Reich may deviate from the constitution as long as they do not affect the institutions of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The rights of the President remain undisturbed.
Barak Obama, State of the Union, 1-24-2012
Some of what’s broken has to do with the way Congress does its business these days. A simple majority is no longer enough to get anything -– even routine business –- passed through the Senate. (Applause.) Neither party has been blameless in these tactics. Now both parties should put an end to it. (Applause.) For starters, I ask the Senate to pass a simple rule that all judicial and public service nominations receive a simple up or down vote within 90 days. (Applause.)
The executive branch also needs to change. Too often, it’s inefficient, outdated and remote. (Applause.) That’s why I’ve asked this Congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy, so that our government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people. (Applause.)
It’s what’s for dinner
The Circus is back in town. Or maybe it never left. The names remain the same, the form of the cause evolves slightly, but the theme persists. Shut down growth. Keep the country in the county. Save us.
Locally it started with the Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse, a creature near and dear to our hearts that was uniquely threatened by evil developer bulldozers. We awoke to find one day that this rodent species owns a whole basket of usurped property rights. Based on this novel discovery, hundreds of green and left warriors combined with sympathetic government regulators to form the Circus and bring into existence, by mere presumption, thousands of pages of growth-stopping regulations. They empowered the federal Environmental Protection Agency and all subordinate levels of government to save that mouse, and by their curious chain of cause and effect, us too. The economic clout now wielded on behalf of that mouse makes it one of the most powerful rodents in the history of the universe, probably second only to Mickey. And we were not saved.
The Circus rested for a bit and recharged its batteries. Then along came an evil developer intent on bringing commerce to the eastern plains of Colorado with a broad vision for a super highway complete with utility corridors and railroad tracks. Imagine the environmental impacts–pretty much the worst things possible–the smog all that transportation would cause, the ancient trees to be felled, the noise, the light. Don’t go toward the light! Imagine the poor mice that would have to be relocated and provided similar habitat—if it could even be found—outside of the right of way. The damages would surely be irreparable. The Circus shifted into high gear and put the pedal to the metal. They rented busses to carry occupants to the State capitol. They saturated planning and commissioner meetings. They filled the internet with a relentless onslaught of do or die hyperbolic predictions about the end of the world that this road would precipitate. The end of the world was serious stuff. No one wanted that. The laws were passed, the court cases came in. The Circus rested. And still we were not saved.
One day an evil developer came along, intent on bringing water commerce to the eastern plains of Colorado with a broad vision for long distance water transportation to quench the thirst of citizens in a sub-development in Colorado Springs. The Circus double clutched their well-oiled machine and slipped it into gear. Hundreds of loud clamorers filled auditoriums, government meetings and state house offices with a new flag of presumed entitlement, “our water.” The fact that not a drop of it actually belonged to them gave them no pause. “Our water” was not actually “their water” but the mob has never been one to quibble about details like legal property rights. They were all about momentum, sound bites and the persuasion of pure force. Demonstrators and occupyers don’t wait for the subtleties of legal technicalities, unless of course a legal technicality can be found to put wind into their sails, that’s another matter. The evil developer was persuaded to recede into the tapestry of the world, and the Circus rested once again. And still we were not saved.
Then along came the evil energy developers, intent on bringing commerce to the eastern plains of Colorado with a broad vision of energy independence from the beneficial use of dormant oil and gas supplies lying ten thousand feet down in the ground. The Circus kicked their machine into overdrive. To save us once again, the green and left warriors sallied forth and wrote hundreds of pages of zoning laws incorporating every growth stopping agency and device ever conceived by statist man. They employed lawyers to tune their language so those laws could only be challenged—never repealed—by endless years of impossibly expensive litigation.
The Roman government gave bread and circuses to the people to distract them from the messy details of their oppressive governors. Today’s Circus combines the clamoring class of green and leftist warriors with a sympathetic regulatory class of unelected bureaucrats, to form the government itself. Gone are those halcyon times when the mob could be placated by mere food and entertainment. Perhaps conditioned by reality TV, the mob now insists on being part of the action. They want a hand in actually creating the government fascism that will turn around and oppress them. So long as they can applaud a victory, it matters not that the beast they create intends to dine on them.
For all their efforts put in to save our quality of life, our environment, and our property values, you’d think real estate around here would be getting more expensive.
The Jews have their Talmud, the Muslims their Hadiths, exhaustive rules of religious law and taboo to define every nuance of permissible human action. Secular Americans have City, County, State and Federal regulations in a great fascist web waiting to entrap citizens, pending the whim of an invisible unelected bureaucratic shaman somewhere who may notice a non-compliant act, and who then brings down the wrath of government upon the citizen, er, applicant.
The applause is always deafening.
the agenda
“Why bother with an environmental impact assessment if the decision was always going to be made for political reasons?” WSJ, 1/19/2012, pg. A14.
Excellent question, and it points squarely to the agenda motivating Elbert County greens in pushing through impossibly complex local oil and gas zoning. This zoning putsch masquerades under saving property values, sparing the environment, and smart growth, but those are just platitudes for the rubes.
This zoning would create a matrix of imponderable and unchallengeable laws administered by a czar, who would conduct numerous public planning circuses for green activists to attend and applaud, for the sole purpose of displaying oil and gas development blasphemers for the greens to ridicule.
The political decision has already been made by these people. Please, save us all a lot of time and money. We’re not stupid. We don’t need your sacrificial rituals to the green gods. Just ban it for the taboo that you’ve already decided it is.
And I want to see the Community and Development Services director wear a witch doctor’s headdress at future BOCC meetings, you know, something befitting a smartly dressed shaman.
Elbert County next?
Text of letter: AG letter to El Paso County of 1-10-2012
Attorney General warns El Paso County on proposed oil and gas regs
2012-01-17 16:26:51
The Attorney General’s Office last week sent a letter warning El Paso County that its proposed oil and gas drilling regulations conflicted with state regulations.
The letter, dated Jan. 10, cited proposed rules on setbacks, excavations, water quality, wildlife, visual and noise impacts and permitting that it argued are in the purview of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
“The county should reject the proposed rules discussed above as being in operational conflict with the (oil and gas commission’s) regulatory regime,” the letter concluded. “The county should reject the proposed rules discussed above for the additional reason that exhaustive local regulations are unnecessary.” [Read more…]
the cost of regulation
“Every year regulatory compliance costs U.S. businesses $1.75 Trillion. That would be enough to hire 43 Million workers.”
See this short youtube video at Episode Two: Economic Freedom in America Today.
Regulation is not only a Federal problem. Regulation is pernicious, at every level of government. Today Elbert County has a clear choice whether or not to greatly expand our county’s regulatory reach into energy development matters it knows next to nothing about.
At the county level the force of regulation is imposed through zoning law. Our county’s Community and Development Services department works every day to write, refine, expand, detail and enforce their ubiquitous vision of a perfectable society. They want to save this land and this county from its people because, essentially, they don’t trust the people.
They think they are wise stewards who, with a third-party steward’s interest, have a more valuable right to forecefully impose their vision about a sound local economy, than the stakeholders and property holders in the county have in doing so for themselves.
Zoning regulators think that by stopping people from the pursuit of economic activity, they serve a higher purpose of preservation of our local world. This of course begs questions of preservation for what? For who? For when? And for why?
Of course they have answers for all of these questions. The answers are myths — myths consisting of more tenuous myths in a great pyramid of “smart,” sustainable, no-growth, enviro-jihad mythology.
The future beneficiaries of county zoning and regulation don’t exist. They are a myth–not real–and unless you’re a believer, not even foreseeable. The great probability is they will never come to exist because future unforseen circumstances will change everything long before these present day socio and eco myths can ever be tested, long after they are forgotten in favor of some future mythology as yet unkown.
Man took matters that used to be in God’s domain and invested them in Gaia, the environment and universe-trekking aliens. That’s what humans do at the margins of their knowledge where observation ends and speculation begins–we create mythologies–myths that we love. And then we create the legalities to enforce those mythologies.
Regulatory zealots consider this sort of talk heresy. They believe that the forced perfectibility of man and the environment is actually possible. Just as the power that was – the Church – once defended Ptolemy’s geocentric universe against the heresy of Copernicus, so too the regulatory powers of today know, without a shadow of doubt, that they know best, and that they can sufficiently describe, legislate, and enforce a set of rules to govern our behavior, for our own best interest.
To even imagine they could succeed at such a task is a pinnacle of hubris. When has an authoritarian process ever led to a best outcome for its subjects? When have a small minority of minds ever created the economic output of a diverse population acting in their own interests? The regulatory model cannot succeed.
Regulation makes inevitable change much more costly. The regulatory parties in government who do this to us have no personal skin in the game–only myths and the iron fist–a deadly combination. Ironically, the regulatory mission of governing progressives is about the most regressive thing they could do.
If we can’t stop creating mythologies, at least we should learn to stop legalizing them.
~
Hickenlooper’s SOTS address
On the subject of county level oil and gas regulations:
“In that same spirit, we intend to work with counties and municipalities to make sure we have appropriate regulation on oil and gas development, but recognize the state can’t have 64 or even more different sets of rules.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2012/01/12/text-hickenloopers-state-of-the.html?page=all
Perhaps the tide of regulatory proliferation of the myth of a perfectable society has turned around on all the would-be czars and county potentates in Colorado’s planning and zoning departments.
Our freedom depends on it.
2012 current ECRCC Bylaws
Elbert County Republican Central Committee Bylaws
“[R]esolutions introduced by registered Elbert County Republican participants at the precinct caucus are eligible for action by each precinct caucus. A majority vote by the caucus shall advance that resolution for consideration of the Resolutions Committee, and must include name, address, phone and if available email of the person submitting the proposal.
The Resolutions Committee shall meet after the precinct caucus and prior to the county assembly for the purpose of confirming the precinct caucus action and to determine if the resolution conforms to the requirement of expounding a fundamental principle of the Republican Party. A two-thirds majority vote by the committee shall advance that resolution for consideration of the county assembly.”
Caucuses are February 7, 2012.
Note: The Resolutions Committee has 5 people on it. That means it will take 4 out 5 affirming committee votes to pass a precinct caucus resolution on to the the county assembly.
here we go…
The declared Republican challenger to the Elbert County commissioner district 3 seat, Mr. Larry Ross, briefly introduced himself at a Republican Central Committee meeting last night. He told the members that the poor condition of the local economy had motivated him to run for commissioner. And he told the members that he was a strong proponent of regulation.
It was during a period of brief introductions of various candidates and the purpose of the meeting was not to vet candidates, so no one questioned him on the juxtaposition of those two statements.
No one remarked about how regulations suppress economic activity.
No one mentioned how county zoning is an authoritarian process for imposing government takings in a heavily tilted playing field where the government holds practically unlimited power and the citizen is treated as a serf.
No one informed him that a pro-regulation position is an inherently unconservative and unRepublican stance.
And no one asked him why in the world he’s running as a Republican.
Even though there wasn’t time for it last night, these things needed to be mentioned.
~
By the way, all Republican caucus attendees should pre-register for the 2/7/2012 caucus at http://www.caucus.cologop.org This is quick process that simply verifies your Republican party voter registration, a requirement to vote in the caucus. Pre-registration is not mandatory but it will help those running your caucus speed things along that night if you are pre-registered.
~
Operational Conflicts Waiver
Proposed Elbert County Oil & Gas Regulations and Permitting Process
Part II, Section 26.2 Review Procedures
I. OPERATIONAL CONFLICTS WAIVER
A waiver to these Regulations shall be granted if or when the application of the requirements of these Regulations actually conflict in operation with the rules of the Oil and Gas Conservation Act or implementing regulations.
1. All applications where a waiver due to operational conflicts is requested shall be processed as a Major Oil & Gas Facility and heard in a noticed public hearing by the Board of County Commissioners. The Applicant shall have the burden of pleading and proving an actual, material, irreconcilable operational conflict between the requirements of this section and those of the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission in the context of a specific application.
Translation: You have to prove an operational conflict exists between interpretations of the county and interpretations of the state regulations.
2. For purposes of this Section, an operational conflict exists where an actual application of a County condition of approval or regulation is contrary to State statutory or regulatory requirements and where such conflict would materially impede or destroy the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission’s goals of fostering the responsible, balanced development, production, and utilization of the oil and gas resources in the State of Colorado in a manner consistent with protection of public health, safety, and welfare, and protection of the environment and wildlife resources.
Translation: The county determines the standard by which it will accept a conclusion of an operational conflict.
3. County requirements in areas regulated by the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission that fall within County land use powers necessary to protect the public’s health, safety, and welfare pursuant to the application presented, and which do not impose unreasonable burdens on the Applicant, or materially impede the State’s goals, shall be presumed not to present an operational conflict.
Translation: The county will interpret when an operation conflict exists and whether the conflict presents an unreasonable burden to the applicant.
4. If the Board of County Commissioners determines that compliance with the requirements of these Regulations results in an operational conflict with State statutes or regulations, a waiver to this section shall be granted, in whole or in part, but only to the extent necessary to remedy the operational conflict. The Board of County Commissioners may mitigate any impacts by conditioning the approval of a waiver as necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare. Any such condition shall be such that the condition itself does not conflict with the requirements of the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission.
Translation: The county says whether a waiver that they might offer will satisfy the conflicting state requirement.
5. If the Applicant, or any person entitled to receive notice of the original application for the Oil & Gas. Facility, wishes to seek judicial review of a final Board of County Commissioner’s decision on the operational conflict waiver request, appeal to the district court shall be pursuant to C.R.C.P. Rule 106(a)4.
Translation: If you don’t like it, sue us.
Cmmr. Schlegel grows govt.
From: Kurt Schlegel
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 12:22 PM
To: Marvin and Nancy Maul; Del Schwab; John Shipper
Cc: Richard L. Miller
Subject: DRAFT Elbert County Oil and Gas Regulations
Good Afternoon Mr. Maul,
Thank you for sending me your thoughts / opinions regarding County based land use regulations. I have followed the recent actions that have been taken or deferred by other Counties regarding the adoption of specific land use regulation relating to Oil & Gas Exploration. As County Commissioners we are tasked with adopting and enforcing land use rules and regulations in order to protect the property values of all property owners in the County.
I believe it is County government’s duty to ensure that Oil & Gas exploration in Elbert County is done responsibly and staff has worked diligently to incorporate lessons that have been learned from other Colorado counties in our proposed Oil & Gas Regulations. Please be aware that these DRAFT regulations have nothing to do with the actual drilling / hydraulic fracturing / harvesting of resources processes. These are regulated by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC). Our County regulations are designed to ensure the public safety by designating traffic / haul routes for equipment, specify where and how equipment can be stored safely, how waste byproducts are handled and stored, etc. In addition our staff has worked to ensure that the proposed regulations do not pre-empt any regulation already in place by the State of Colorado. I invite you to review the DRAFT document which is available on the Elbert County website at http://elbertcounty-co.gov/dept_CommunityandDevelopmentServices.php
As I stated previously, the County is also responsible for the enforcement of all zoning and land use regulations. The taxpayers expect this service and are entitled to this regulatory authority that is designed to protect everyone’s property values and ensure the public’s safety. The fact that we will have clearly defined what is expected of all surface activities associated with oil and gas exploration will make it easier for staff to enforce, thereby saving the taxpayers money in the long run.
I appreciate your input and invite you to attend, or be a part of, the Planning Commission’s review process. Their first meeting to discuss the DRAFT Oil & Gas Regulations is scheduled for Thursday – 26 January, 2012 at 6:00 pm.
Sincerely,
Kurt C. Schlegel
Elbert County Commissioner; District 2
215 Comanche Street
Kiowa, CO 80117
303-621-3139
Kurt.schlegel@elbertcounty-co.gov
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Marvin and Nancy Maul
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 3:05 PM
To: Del Schwab; Kurt Schlegel; John Shipper
Subject: Oil and gas regulations
To the Elbert County Board of County Commissioners:
This refers to the draft of new oil and gas regulations being prepared by Richard Miller, Director of the Elbert County Community and Development Services that I understand will be brought before the Board for a vote shortly.
I would suspect that by now the Commissioners are aware of the lead editorial contained within the January 9 issue of The Denver Post entitled “Current fracking rules enough” which summarizes pretty well the intent of the editorial. I understand as well, that at least two Colorado counties (Arapahoe and Gunnison) have been convinced that their proposed oil and gas proposed regulations represent an unnecessary duplication of regulations already adopted by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and are withdrawing them.
With all due respect I am concerned that actions taken by the Board to date as I understand them, seem to indicate that Elbert County is moving toward adoption of a 60-page set of regulations, tailor-made for Elbert County, even to the point of hiring outside counsel to aid in the drafting of the document. I cannot understand (and I refer again to the Denver Post article) why the County feels the need for a set of regulations that will largely superimpose over the existing COGCC regulations
Further, we recognize that Elbert County as with most other governmental entities across the country is in a financially precarious position. Adding the regulatory purview of Mr.. Miller’s proposal to the county’s populace would include not only the direct costs of the consequences of the regulations as well as additional costs imposed by the mechanisms for enforcement of the regulations. How many new employees will Miller be able to add to his department if these regulations with resultant enforcement are adopted? It seems to me that in view of the state’s regulatory actions, the County’s tacking on of these new costs will represent a highly wasteful use of taxpayers dollars, and it’s not as if the environmental concerns of the County’s residents were being overlooked!
Finally, as an Elbert County taxpayer, I am wondering if, in the event the County decides along with the other counties to instead adopt the COGCC regulations, will the County be able to recover some of the funds being expended on the outside lawyers?!
Sincerely yours,
Marvin O. Maul
Colorado Springs, CO
our money buys Obama votes
fiefdoms are fascist
CO AG warned Arapahoe
Arapahoe County proposed Oil and Gas Zoning recently rejected
Colorado Attorney General’s Letter to Arapahoe – pdf
Note: Arapahoe’s proposed regs are 19 pages long. Elbert County’s proposed regs run 60 pages.
~
The Board of Elbert County Commissioners met in a regularly scheduled meeting on September 28th, 2011: Excerpt-
Commissioner Shipper moved to approve and execute Engagement agreement between Elbert County and the law firm of Murray, Dahl, Cougenmiester and Renaud LLP regarding provision of certain special counsel service to Elbert County regarding the draft of the Elbert County Oil and Gas Regulations.
Commissioner Schwab commented on a concern, the State can overrule County Regulations and would not want to be put in this position. The only way to avoid this is to have someone with oil and gas experience review these regulations, that is reason the Board is entering into this Agreement with Murray, Dahl, Cougenmiester and Renaud LLP.
Commissioner Schwab seconded the motion, passed.
Perhaps the Elbert County BOCC should get their money back on this contract….
and consider whether we need a czar of anything around here.
Post endorses limiting govt.
Gunnison BOCC limits govt.
COGCC, Gunnison County approve MOU
“The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Gunnison County have approved a memorandum of understanding that memorializes the intent of both parties to work together on regulatory matters related to oil and gas development. This MOU, the first of its kind between the Commission and a county government, was approved Oct. 31, 2011.
The MOU follows several meetings between Commission staff and county officials and represents a cooperative approach designed to clarify and coordinate the regulation of oil and gas operations in a way that assists the state and provides assurance to the county and its residents that industry activity is protective of public health and the environment.”
MOU Between the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Gunnison County
Arapahoe BOCC limits govt.
