FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Anne Lee Foster: 757-870-5102, anneleefoster@gmail.com
***NEWS ALERT***
Temp. Restraining Order Hearing in Forced Pooling Case Continued Tomorrow
Community Awaits Pivotal Decision
DENVER – On Tuesday, February 12th at 11:00 am, the hearing for Colorado Rising, the grassroots, citizen group behind the Prop 112 effort, and the Wildgrass community’s motion for a temporary restraining order in the forced pooling lawsuit against the state will continue. A decision on the restraining order motion should be issued tomorrow. This could halt Extraction Oil and Gas’s development at the site in question in Broomfield.
Key quotes from Friday’s hearing:
Judge: “If they {the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission} are going forward before hearings they are starring right down the barrel of the due process gun.”
Witness 2: “That’s the COGCC rules.”
Judge: “Well the due process clause of the constitution trumps that.”
Judge: “It {COGCC} sounds like a kangaroo court, but I doubt that is how you are operating.”
Judge: “There doesn’t have to to be a forced pooling hearing before they drill your property?”
W3: “That’s why we are asking for a restraining order.”
Judge: “I don’t think they should drill holes in the ground until they know if they can force pool.
Plaintiff attorney: “How did you feel to be forced into a business relationship with a company that you already expressed concerns about?”
Witness 2: “If something happens in our neighborhood, like the Firestone incident, I’m profiting off that? That’s not who I am at all.”
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The hearing will be at the Alfred A. Arraj United States Courthouse at 901 19th St., Denver, Colorado 80202 in room A 902.Read the press release about the lawsuit here.
Follow Colorado Rising’s twitter for live-tweet updates of the proceedings. You can read the live-tweets from Friday’s hearing.
