Politics & Laws

The oil & gas industry spends millions of dollars lobbying elected officials at every level of government to ensure laws and policies are favorable to their profits, not the health, safety, and well-being of people and the planet.

Money

In Colorado, the oil & gas industry has spent over $80,000 influencing politics.

Loopholes

In 2005, then vice-President Dick Cheney (and former CEO of Halliburton) ushered in a new era of sweeping reforms favoring the oil & gas industry. Known as the Halliburton Loophole, the oil & gas industry was exempted from critical pieces of federal legislation designed to protect our air, land, water and health.

The Halliburton Loophole allowed the oil & gas industry exemptions to ignore key provisions in:

The Safe Drinking Water Act
The Clean Air Act
The Clean Water Act
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

bribery

Senator John Hickenlooper, and Former Governor of Colorado and former Denver Mayor, has taken hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions from the oil & gas industry.

Fast Facts

Fracking
Kills

Naturally occurring radioactivity is often brought up to the surface during the drilling and fracking process.

In 2019, the CDPHE released its Final Report: Human Health Risk Assessment for Oil and Gas Operations in Colorado which recommended no less than 2,000 ft setback.

Between January 2015 and February 2021, over 3,400 resident complaints were filed with the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission citing health and quality of life issues.