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Lachelt misstated the role of fracking

As chairman of the board of directors for Vital for Colorado – an organization with more than 34,000 members and public supporters who affirm the importance of oil and gas development to our state – I am writing to correct a dangerous misstatement that La Plata County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt made about hydraulic fracturing in a story headlined “Mineral-rights owners may be paid,” (Herald, Dec. 18).

As the co-chairman of the task force reviewing the state’s oil and gas regulations, it is important that she understand the fundamental facts of gas and oil development. In a story highlighting legislation that would compensate mineral owners for lost income when a local government bans hydraulic fracturing, Lachelt said: “A ban on fracking does not mean a ban on oil and gas development. It just means the actual fracking process itself. But companies are still developing minerals without fracking.”

This statement shows an alarming lack of understanding about gas and oil operations, and we want to correct it. In fact, more than 90 percent of the wells drilled in the United States and Colorado rely on hydraulic fracturing. Indeed, but for breakthrough advances in hydraulic fracturing, the vast majority of the gas and oil reserves that are now being developed would simply not be available for production at all.

New production has had a profound effect on global energy markets. Domestic production of these fracking-dependent reserves has made America a robust competitor with Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the global oil cartel that, until recently, had boasted of a stranglehold on global oil markets. But thanks to new domestic production made possible by fracking, OPEC is forcing to compete, and American consumers are experiencing the benefits in dramatically reduced costs of gasoline at the pump.

All of these facts illuminate a key concept we hope Lachelt can grasp: Without fracking, there is no American energy revolution. Suggesting that energy development is possible with a fracking ban in place is the theoretical equivalent of saying automobiles are useful even if tires were banned. Neither argument withstands even first-blush scrutiny.

Peter Moore

Denver



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