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Colorado Teenagers Win Legal Battle For Oil and Gas Rules

Tim Hurst
/
Creative Commons

A group of teenagers has won an appeals-court victory in a case involving how oil and gas drilling is done in Colorado.

On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Xiutezcatl Martinez of Boulder and other teens who had proposed a new rule for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. The rule would have required that the commission not issue any permits for oil or gas drilling unless it could be shown that the drilling would not “cumulatively, with other actions, impair Colorado’s atmosphere, water, wildlife, and land resources,” adversely impact human health or contribute to climate change. The teens proposed the rule in November 2013 but the commission ultimately denied their petition. The commission said its role was to balance health and safety against the need for energy development, and the teens’ rule would have tipped the balance toward protection. With support from numerous environmental groups, the petitioners appealed in district court but were turned down. They then went to the state appeals court, which reversed the lower court’s ruling. The appeals court said state law mandates that energy development in Colorado be regulated “subject to the protection of public health, safety, and welfare, including protection of the environment and wildlife resources.” The case is now remanded to the district court for further consideration.

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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