Opinion Piece: Merrily Mazza: Democrats won’t help us fight fracking

September 24, 2017

Boulder Daily Camera

To read the entire article click here.

“In Boulder County, the progressive paradise, Democratic Party officials, the people we’re told are on our side, all have the same ineffectual advice for outraged constituents:

• Participate in COGCC hearings. Note: The COGCC has never denied a permit. Ever. Meanwhile, you get fracked.

• Renewables! The new “bridge fuel” buzzword — as though Lafayette and Boulder County will stop a toxic onslaught if only they buy more electric cars, solar panels, and low-flow toilets.

• Regulations. We’ll make the poison and explosive chemicals as safe as possible.

• Lobby Congress. They can’t hear you if there’s no money on the table. Meanwhile, you get fracked.

• Lobby the governor. The same Democrat hyping fracking for CRED.

• Lobby the state legislature. Definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Meanwhile, you get fracked.”

• Elect a better governor. Jared Polis, the guy who sold fracking-threatened communities down the river in 2014? And let’s not forget every living Dem governor shilling for the industry in TV ads and, in 2016, backing industry-funded “Raise the Bar” amendment 71 to protect the industry by severely restricting citizen initiatives. And “environmentalist” Sen. Michael Bennet hyping an LNG terminal on the Oregon coast.

• Elect more Dems. They’re just as industry-owned, but they’re better at identity politics.

The Democratic Party is incapable, nationally and locally, of being a people’s party. The coming fracking fight will bear that out if the financial meltdown didn’t already. Time for the people to take charge.