Craig Daily Press / Patrick Germond: Meeting not democratic

June 14, 2008

Craig — To the editor:

On June 10, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission hosted a meeting in Grand Junction.

Nine people appointed by the governor did their best to make the meeting look like a democracy in action, but in the end made it clear nothing was further from the truth.

Roughnecks and dragon fighters packed the room. Director David Nielson commented to the effect that the meeting was not a popularity contest. If the public didn’t have anything he thought was important to say, the fact that large numbers of people showing up to protest the new regulations definitely wasn’t what would matter to him.

The rub of this whole thing is it creates bureaucracy, with great power over the lifeblood of the working men and women. One, that if an environmentalist was to be appointed, could make life a living hell for us and our economy. The worst regulation is of a 90-day “black out stack out” for the spotted prairie chickens to have alone time.

If the government was so worried about them, they would offer a huge bounty on coyotes and let the roughnecks spotlight the predators in that area. There would be chickens everywhere within a year. This new rule should be dropped altogether. In the wrong hands, the regulations could run these companies out of state. They will go somewhere, where they can work their iron 24/7/365.

With the price of gas soon to be more than $5 a gallon, the time for governmental monkey business has long past.

If people in Denver at the state Capitol don’t care about what we think, then we need to change that.

We need to get low and fast in this fight or we’re going to lose it. If the governor and his people don’t care about being popular with the peasants, then lets see how they feel about being hated by the mob.

I’ve talked to several people and representatives from the governor’s office this week. They all where quick to give out a Web site to go to in order to complain in a nice quiet fashion.

I told the media spokeswomen for the Oil and Gas Commission that I had a better idea. How about the people who are against Gov. Ritter’s take over of an industry that’s doing fine without him, just call in to his office to complain.

I said, “You know every time we’re filling up our tanks, we take out our cell phones, scroll down, hit redial and call the state Capitol, and we keep doing it until prices are within reason.”

Everything got real quiet and the conversation was soon over. She did explain the Oil and Gas Commission doesn’t set the price of oil. That’s a bunch of bull. It’s people doing precisely these types of things and adding regulations that has all but shut down domestic drilling.

We have to step in now or we will be the ones who are threatened. We can’t fight what happened in Alaska with the polar bear, but we can make a difference right here, right now.

We owe it to our nation. When you call the numbers below, don’t be afraid to explain and pass on what you’re doing to the person pumping gas next to you. Put these numbers in your phone now if you feel this way.

Gov. Ritter’s office is 303-866-2471, the Oil and Gas Commission 303-894-2100, and Sen. Ken Salazar is 970-241-6631. Salazar is a U.S. Senator but, what the heck, he needs an earful too.

Patrick Germond

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14 June 2008 at 7:45 p.m.

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cantstandtexans (Anonymous) says…

exaggerations…..total exaggerations. Left to the oil and gas drilling companies..they would just as soon run amuck and having worked for a while out amongst the drillers and related support companies….I'm telling you!! There needs to be stiffer regulations to force said companies into more stringent guidelines for the protection of the environment and property owners. And what about all that poaching that rig workers and support company workers are doing??!!! I know!! I've talked to a number of DOW wardens…and it's getting worse as the number of workers increases and oil/gas rigs pop up even further into the wild habitat! You've come too late Mr. Germond to argue your point of view. The oil and gas developers aren't about to hightail it out of Colorado. And further…it's the oil/gas speculators that appear to be driving this idiotic and economic destructive price increases. Not the Oil and Gas Commission!! If that was the case…with all the gas being produced in Colorado alone..instead of being shipped off to Detroit, Michigan or elsewhere in that general direction…gas prices would not be heading sky high in our home state!! Speculator's will screw things up so drastically..and yet they are required to come up with only 4% of the selling price of these commodities. 4%!!!! And yet..they can alter yours and my life style by their incisive greed. So…get off the Oil and Gas Commision Mr. Germond…your job is safe or the jobs of your friends. It's a bluff game by the likes of Encana…Nabors…Williams, etc. Have you seen how much money Williams as made these last 3 to 4 years??!!! they ain't goin nowheres…they love money and money is what they are raking in by the millions!!

14 June 2008 at 10:48 p.m.

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50cal (Anonymous) says…

regulatons I can believe in. You cannot let the gas and oil companies go wild. look around rifle, see all that mess right next to the interstate? that was from fifeteen to just a few years ago when the state and blm started putting tougher regulations on the companies. Williams built a 20 million dollar tunnal for fifeteen wells. I know I'm in the industry right now but at the same time shell and encana have already scaled back on exploration on speculation of what the east slope will demand of them. SO it has already affected jobs. Let them do their exploration with strict guidelines on polution and even stricter guidelines and regulatons on reclamation when the well has produced its usable supply of oil or gas. Think they can't do it? Look at trapper mine. A well site is much smaller than that.