Thank you, Elbert County planners, for the buggy ride.
I read the proposed Oil & Gas regulations and the proposed Memorandum of Understanding to accompany the regulations.
To discover why Elbert County needs this new body of local zoning law, I went to the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission website to compare existing state regulations with the Elbert County proposals.
I read the topical cross reference index that correlates subjects to COGCC rules.
I read the table of contents for all COGCC rules.
I skimmed through the 180 pages of COGCC rules and regulations.
I skimmed through the 26 pages of Title 34, Article 60 of the Colorado Revised Statute enabling legislation for the COGCC.
I didn’t find anything in the Elbert County proposals that wasn’t already thoroughly dealt with in a much better written, unambiguous, and effective manner at the state level.
So, I’m left with the conclusion that the Elbert County Oil & Gas regulatory effort isn’t about regulating Oil & Gas at all. That leaves money.
A device to bring money into the county is the only reason left to explain this effort. Someone apparently decided that under existing zoning, Elbert County didn’t have sufficient legal hooks into this budding industry to scrape off some cash for itself.
So that’s why the big government types who control the county commissions and the county planning process have spent so much effort to get this done. Oil & Gas is just the latest funding source to grow their beloved government. And bonus points, the industry comes with a built-in clamoring segment of the public who dependably create the spectacle of a sense of urgency to push regulations through.
And you don’t even have to pay them. They just show up. Every time.
To those Elbert County citizens still capable of independent thought, which unfortunately rules out most of the folks planning to attend the BOCC meeting this Wednesday, I say take the Buggy Ride. Reach a different conclusion than I have if you can.
If Elbert County really needs more money and Oil & Gas is to be its cash cow, it would be much more honest and simple to embrace TABOR, make the tax argument to the people at large, and let the people decide the matter.
This regulatory sideshow will cause a nightmare of unintended consequences. Not only is it an extremely poor cousin to the state’s rules, but it’s a fundamentally undemocratic exercise in fascism without voter consent.
B_Imperial