The radical, liberal, well-funded group MoveOn.org is backing a petition to ban fracking on the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana, and as you will see below- the effort appears to be directly coordinated with anti oil and gas campaigns all along the entire Rocky Mountain Front stretching into Colorado as well. All this, as the UK has lifted a ban on fracking, and a fracking-inspired economic boom is bringing the luxury jets and the diamond buyers to Billings, Montana.
Here’s a link to the fracking ban being pushed by MoveOn.Org on Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front. It might be interesting to take a closer look at some of the names who have signed the petition, especially considering the fact that anti-fracking measures could be expected in Montana’s upcoming legislative session. Dave Galt with the Montana Petroleum Association says, “Clearly the environmental groups are using any possible means to stop increases in domestic oil and gas development.”
As the AP reports, efforts to ban fracking on the Rocky Mountain Front don’t rest solely in Montana. Activists are stepping up their antics in Colorado, a traditional oil and gas friendly state.
Gas-mask-wearing protesters are confronting city and county officials considering whether to limit or ban hydraulic fracturing, a drilling procedure in which water, sand and chemicals are forced deep underground to pry oil and gas from rock. Fracking, as the procedure is called, has led to an energy boom in areas previously unattractive to energy producers, but it is also raising concerns about air and water quality.
The protests in Colorado have gotten intense. At hearings across the state, shouting opponents harass oil and gas representatives. Even Colorado’s governor, a Democrat and former geologist who says fracking is safe, has been mobbed by protesters. Leaving a suburban Denver meeting about drilling earlier this fall, Gov. John Hickenlooper ducked into an SUV and pulled away as a crowd of protesters, some of them children, chanted, “Dirty water, dirty air, we get sick and you don’t care!”
Meanwhile, overseas, the UK has lifted a ban on fracking. The Politico Playbook has this:
VITTER PRAISES U.K. FRACKING, GUV’NAH: Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) is no fan of the British National Health Service, but he does think the Brits are doing something right: fracking. The U.K. last week lifted a ban on hydraulic fracturing, though officials are planning stricter oversight. “As numerous members of your cabinet and administration look to frustrate and perhaps cripple fracking in the United States, I ask that you take a serious look at the decision the U.K. made last week to allow fracking,” Vitter wrote Monday to Obama. “In fact, an analysis of what the unemployment rate in this country would have been over the last four years without fracking is perhaps overdue.” The letter: http://politico.pro/V3L5D4
And, in case you missed it, Jan Falstad had another very interesting report detailing how the Bakken boom is making a big impact on Billings businesses:
During a recent walk, Kevin Ploehn, assistant director at Billings Logan International Airport, spotted more “heavy iron” than ever before.
“I saw five or six Gulfstreams or Falcons, large business jets. It was impressive,” he said. The oil-and-natural gas boom raging in western North Dakota and spreading into Eastern Montana is why Edwards Jet Center built another Billings hangar to accommodate all the private jets, Ploehn said.
Boots and jeans are a welcome sight at Goldsmith Gallery Jewelers, which expects to blow by expectations this year, selling up to 30 percent more than in 2011. Oil field workers are buying $10,000 to $20,000 Rolex watches and jewelry, said owner Scott Wickam.