When the BOCC announced at the June 26th meeting that only the zoning element of the proposed oil & gas regulations was on the table that day, many people in the room started to visibly shake.  Speaker after speaker stood up to rebut severing consideration of the zoning from the MOU, the emotional barometer rising with each second on the clock.

No words were left unsaid, no constructs unexplored, no state vs. county vs. industry vs. the environment scenario went undiagnosed, in the attempt to convince the BOCC to reconsider and get that MOU back on the table.

So many bloody bodies piled up on the sword of the MOU that proceedings became a little farcical.  At one point a wrestling match for the microphone almost broke out when Paul Crisan staked out turf next to the podium and the BOCC had to order him to stand down.  He’s probably still smarting from that rebuke — like an ice bucket of cold water in the face.

After all, he’s one of the insiders!  One of the hearty givers who seize the reins of power in the planning commission, or the oil & gas edit committee, or the water advisory board, or who faithfully show up as acolyte enabling audience for one of the law-giver groups.  And these folks aren’t shy about heaping praise upon other members of the law-giving communities, which is to say, upon themselves.  All of these committees have periodic rituals of mutual adoration that the uninitiated have to sit through.

Mind you, no one denies that the work is difficult, or that it doesn’t have value.  But the question of value remains open.  To listen to the ones puffing about their public service, the value is quite high.  But all that puffing probably gets offset by the self-aggrandizement factor.

Even things like gold that have intrinsic value still trade at an objectively determined market value.

In the objective market for this round of oil & gas zoning regulations, it appears their value came up well short of their expectations.  No amount of puffing could save it.

The oil & gas edit committee, the planning commission, the water board, the acolyte enablers, all of them gambled on a payoff that their self-fulfilling prophecy of an MOU would get anointed by a majority of the BOCC and given the force of law.  They knew they had Ross in the bag and all they had to do was convince Rowland.  Surely that was a done deal.

And what a victory it would have been!  So strong was the allure of success that they ignored warning signs about operational conflicts from the Attorney General’s office.  They’d considered all that and figured the risk of the County getting sued was worth the exposure.  The COGCC, COGA and Jake Matter from the AG’s office all came out to talk some sense into the planners, and planners didn’t even bother to update their zoning and MOU proposals, so sure were they of the righteousness of their path.

And then it all came crashing down on the 26th.  All that remained on July 10th was to hammer a few nails in the coffin, the patient already long gone.  Who knew that Rowland would decide that the risk of the County getting sued was not something Rowland was going to gamble over on his watch?

Well, the name calling, the raising of procedural doubts, the personal disparagements, all of it is just kicking into gear.  You don’t affront this bunch of professional do-gooders without paying serious blood money.  They will have their revenge.  People will pay dearly for interfering in their all important work of furthering the agenda.

They’ll never admit this failure was their fault.  But it was.  They overreached.  They gambled.  They shut out contrary indicators.  They refused substantive inputs from industry and the state alike.  They argued down reasonable opposing views.  They made themselves more important than the truth.  They put faith in their own club of mutual admirers over the objective reality that surrounds all of us.  They gave into hubris.  They were big fish in a small pond.

Someone didn’t get the memo and came along to drain the water.

No worries though.  They’ll be back.  The lure of power, and their lust for it, remain strong.  Oh yes, they’ll definitely be back.  And they’ll expect us to applaud.

B_Imperial