From an 8/8/2013 letter in the Elbert County Sun:
Note that Mr. Brown does not dispute that operational conflicts with COGCC rules exist in the proposed Elbert County Oil & Gas regulations that he helped write. Apparently he’s accepted the reality of the COGCC warnings from the May 14th study session.
But look at his first construction above – the county should pass the oil and gas regulations, thereby cause an economic grievance to a developer, and then discover through litigation whether the state has subject matter jurisdiction on the question of COGCC regulatory occupation of the field. Doesn’t this sound like the much ridiculed Pelosi construct of having to pass the bill in order to find out what’s in it? Do all Democrats think this way?
But let’s move on. Brown next admits an answer to the above conundrum – “let’s assume the state has the legal capacity to file such a lawsuit,” thereby begging a question of what he hoped to achieve in his setup. But let’s not get lost in the weeds as Brown pivots to his next construct – that if the county and Commissioner Rowland consider a given regulatory issue to be a surface matter, while the state considers that same regulatory issue to be an operational matter within its regulatory domain, then the state has “no basis for a lawsuit.” What?
According to Brown, all a county need do is decide that something is within their jurisdiction, and that decision somehow binds the COGCC to go along – unless the COGCC decides not to, and instead puts an operator into a process of asking the BOCC for a waiver.
Let’s see, is that a waiver from the county regulation, or is that a waiver from the COGCC regulation. Mr. Brown doesn’t say, but surely a county that has the power to redefine operational conflicts into surface matters, and thereby remove the basis for a COGCC lawsuit, must also have the power to excuse compliance with COGCC regulations when it sees fit to do so.
Where do counties get such power over the state? In the imagination of Mr. Brown is where. I don’t think Mr. Rowland is the one confused here. But I do worry that Mr. Brown’s “logic” will appear persuasive to people not prepared for such deceptive reasoning.
After weaving his magical brew, Mr. Brown closes with an appeal to Mr. Rowland’s ministerial vanity. Good grief. Is there no panderingly offensive depth to which Brown won’t sink?
B_Imperial