It’s That Time of Year….

It is that time of year when all those non-profits out there are begging for our donations during the holiday season of giving and thanks. Well, the Larimer Alliance is not doing that; we don’t need your money — we need YOU! That is, we need some volunteers willing to attend meetings, learn about meaningful issues, and get involved as citizens in our democracy. Does that sound like something you would be interested in? If so, please read on…

Why Is Activism Necessary?

Activism is how the world gets changed through politics; it can be either bad or good. Bad activism results in bad outcomes for society, and history is full of them. Good activism results in good outcomes for society; history shows this can happen as well. In the case of the O&G industry, local activism is most necessary, because this is where it can be most effective: because O&G lobbyists or lawyers rarely attend city and county level events (though I have seen it happen).

How positive activism happens is no mystery: first you inform yourself about an issue, then inform your community, and then to inform your elected representatives about them. The last two steps take the longest, nudging them along, both your community and your representatives, with encouraging evidence that these policy recommendations will be a good choice: good for people, good for the economy, good for the environment.

A Short History of How We Got Here

The Larimer Alliance started in August 2019 with about a half dozen people fired up by the passage of SB-181 earlier that year that empowered local governments to regulate the oil and gas industry; the only problem was: they didn’t really know how to do that, as we came to find out over the next few years. Nonetheless, we persevered…

We attended county commissioner meetings, did our research about the damaging effects of O&G development (both locally and globally), and testified at meeting after meeting. In the end, we successfully challenged the Planning Committee that had been created by the previous three Republican Commissioners, who had been there for years. We were aided by the election of three new Democratic Commissioners: Kefalas in 2018, and Stephens and Shadduck-McNally in 2020. Did having an all-Democratic board of commissioners make a difference? Yes. Did we get every policy change we asked them? Hardly. We learned that change is incremental, and that politicians are politicians: when they feel confident that the public will support them, they will vote to support something…but that they tend to be very hesitant, often disappointingly so. What was accomplished in Larimer County and inside Fort Collins were increased setbacks for any new wells that might get drilled. Due to these new setbacks, the percentage of eligible land for drilling with the city limits of FoCo is now so miniscule that it is unlikely any new wells will ever get drilled.

Outside the city limits in the county, there are existing wells, and the possibility of new wells; however, our local activism has put any potential developer on notice that such efforts will be resisted. And we publicized existing violators, where we achieve a notable success: the shutting down of the notorious Prospect Energy operation in the Hearthfire neighborhood in 2024. (See that post here.)

Nonetheless, gaining experience with how to prepare for, interact with and support your elected representatives has been a deeply rewarding experience of practical citizenship.

Where We Are Now

Where we are focusing our energy now is our air quality. This is a regional issue; consequently, it means pursuing regulatory change at the state level. If you were not aware, northern Colorado has been out of EPA compliance for ozone exposure levels since 2004. We believe the state could be doing a much better job of both measuring the precise causes of this, and then doing something about it.

If you filter on the category of ‘air quality monitoring’ there are 34 articles that document our efforts in this area to date; so we have a detailed awareness on this issue, and what is possible at the state level. Currently, we doubt there is much of any possibility of making progress until after a new governor is elected in Colorado in 2026.

Which is why we need more volunteers! We will only be successful is we can persevere until the political winds shift in our favor. Another factor in our favor is that we are now connected to other like-minded organizations, primarily through the CCLC, or the Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate. (colivableclimate.org) This helps us to have more information on when and how best to push for change at the state level. We have also developed connections with our three main representatives: Senator Cathy Kipp, Representative Andy Boesenecker, and Representative Yara Zokaie.

Rick, Ed and Senator Cathy Kipp at the 2025 Climate Meetup in Loveland

So if this interests you, or if you just want to ask some questions, send an email to volunteer@larimeralliance.org.

Air quality monitoring, APCD, AQCC, CDPHE, ECMC, Environmental damage from O&G, Local government (city & county), Ozone pollution in Front Range, SB-181, Weld County

“The need to transition off fossil fuels”…a LTE hits a home run!

November 26, 2025 Rick Casey Leave a comment

In case you missed it, there was an impressive event that happened recently with regard to environmental activism: a Letter To the Editor (LTE) about the danger of fossil fuels was published in three local papers — Greeley Tribune; Loveland Reporter Herald, and Longmont Call Times — simultaneously! This is an unprecedented accomplishment, which deserves some recognition.

The author, Carol Hawkins, has been part of the Larimer Alliance for some time; and during that time, has sought a resolution to her situation, but has come round to the same grim realization of others in the community: until the state regulators of O&G see the light, and begin to limit the issuing of new drilling permits, local residents are almost powerless to stop them. All that SB-181 accomplished, it would seem, it to guarantee at least as 2,000 foot setback from any new well.

Below is Dr. Hawkins’ LTE, taken from the Greeley Tribune, 11/19/25:

Colorado faces a difficult choice, transition off fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy or continue to jeopardize our environment and health. Transition will cause economic and social disruption for workers and communities. Any “just transition” requires solutions that mitigate the negative consequences while simultaneously eliminating the deadly pollution caused by burning fossil fuels.

I have lived in Weld County since purchasing my house in 2017. I lived in Maine at the time, near the end of an ”unexpected journey” watching my partner die from Alzheimer’s. I decided to move back to Colorado where I had family and a history of living in the state since the early 1970s. I wanted familiar surroundings. I searched online and found the perfect bungalow, my retirement home, in Ault, a rural town in a good location between Greeley and Fort Collins. I had no idea of the influx of fracking about to come. Shortly after moving, I received a forced pooling notice. I went from grief and PTSD to a sense of doom. Fracking! What did this mean for my quiet life and my health?

The facts about fracking and the impacts were easy to find, but fighting the frack hasn’t been easy. Weld County, otherwise known as “Welled” County, remains the most polluted and fracked in the state. My neighbors, many who work in oil and gas, are mostly working class, and others are first-time home owners looking for affordable housing or long-time residents. Local government is staffed by those who appear unaffected by fracking. When wells were drilled next to the Highland School campus, located in the middle of town, I called the Ault Town Office and Weld County Oil and Gas to question why the drilling was so close to the school when SB 181 called for 2,000-foot setbacks. The Ault Town Office said that they had no knowledge of drilling near the school, although it was happening just down the street, and the Weld County Oil and Gas Office laughed off my reference to SB 181 with the comment “those rules are easy to get around.” And I’ve come to learn that he is right. All you have to do is look at the loopholes. One is home rule, the other is reverse setbacks.

I then turned to the state and began to protest permits, but soon learned that state regulators and the governor support the fossil fuel industry. However, outside of Colorado, a global consensus calls for a “just transition” away from fossil fuels. The planet is heating, driven by greenhouse gases from extracting and burning fossil fuels like oil and fracked gas. Agreements from COP28 called for net-zero emissions by 2050.

Current research, developed by analyzing efforts toward a “just transition” around the world, provides principles that guide policy development: governmental support, dedicated funding streams, strong and diverse coalitions, and economic diversification to address the short-term impacts and long-term needs of workers and communities.

Colorado must come together around this framework of principles for a “just transition,” but the transition from fossil fuels to renewables will still disrupt existing economies, and some communities may face economic hardship due to the loss of jobs and tax revenue from the fossil fuel industry. However, we must make the hard choice to experience the gains from a clean energy economy and healthy environment.

Colorado’s current environmental damage and health impacts are not sustainable and challenge communities reliant on oil and gas to make the hard choice — we need a “just transition” off of fossil fuels. Stop the permits and clean up the mess while supporting displaced workers and disproportionately impacted communities, like Ault.

[Carol Hawkins is a retired English professor who moved back to Colorado from Maine in 2017. She was served a forced pooling notice in 2018 and has been part of the resistance to fracking ever since. Her focus centers on health impacts and damage to our environment, with a particular interest in health care and job training for displaced oil and gas workers, along with support for disproportionately impacted communities like hers in Ault. Dr Hawkins noted that all three papers are owned by a single company, which could be a factor in her LTE appearing in all three simultaneously.]

350 Colorado, CO state regulatory agencies, ECMC, Environmental damage from O&G, SB-181

The fate of the Aurora Reservoir began today…

November 26, 2025 Rick Casey 4 Comments

Today the public comment period on the State Sunlight ECMC Decision Hearing began. It was hard to listen to…both physically, emotionally, mentally…

I joined the meeting when it started at 10:30, but it wasn’t long before the meeting itself was postponed to 11:15, due to absentee members.

Once it started again, the public then had to endure over an hour of testimony (including a lunch break) from the operators. The reader for this task spoke like he was reading a dictionary, and it was just about as interesting. Through all the verbiage, I basically heard assertions that, yes, the operator has complied with the rules and regulations, and, yes, all the experts we’ve hired assure us that this 32 wells to drilled on the Sunlight well pad are going to be totally safe. Funny…his delivery did not inspire the least confidence in what he was saying.

So, it wasn’t until well after lunch that the public — the citizens living near the reservoir who are going to be the most affected by all this drilling — began to have their say….and it went on and on and on…because over thirty people had signed up. This went on for over two hours, I believe…and though I did not hear everyone, I heard enough.

But it wasn’t until I went to the website for activist group leading the residents, STAR, for Save The Aurora Reservoir (savetheaurorareservoir.org), that I came across a startling image that conveys the horror and desperation that these residents are feeling.

[Note: click images for larger view]

Here is a Google map image of the reservoir, the nearby neighborhoods where many of the residents who testified live, and the nearby open lands where the drilling is proposed to occur:

Aurora Reservoir, and nearby neighborhoods

And here is a schematic of roughly the same area, showing the proposed horizontal drilling would be done:

One can well understand the anger, the frustration, the disbelief, and the sheer justified outrage that so many of those who testified directed at the ECMC commissioners. It is indeed hard to believe that that the Sunlight pad, the one that is directly southeast of the Reservoir, is proposed to be drilled right under the residential areas!

This does not feel like any kind of fair process; it feels like economic slavery under an oppressive regime that bows to the wishes of corporate greed of the oil and gas industry.

The hearings will go on for two more days…I can only pray that these commissioners will take to heart the pleas I heard today from these residents.

Here are more screenshots of the Zoom meeting, with some of the more outspoken persons who testified:

The Larimer Alliance will report the outcome. Though this is happening some distance from Larimer County, this could happen near us, such as the Century pad being proposed in Windsor; so it behooves us to pay attention to how these Commissioners make their decisions.

ECMC, General Environmental Reference, Local government (city & county), Water & Fracking, Weld County

A wild night in Windsor

February 11, 2026 Rick Casey 1 Comment

There was a rare display of real community unity facing a threat from the O&G industry last Monday night, November 3, 2025, at the Windsor Community Center. What had been planned as a simple “show & tell” by Verdad Resources about their plans for a huge drilling operation (22 wells off one drillpad) in their community was transformed into a room of local residents banding together to tell them how much they did not want any drilling in their community, thank you very much.

The public meeting was hosted by an O&G firm, Verdad Resources, who is required to give notice to all residences within a half mile radius of the proposed wellsite. Here is the first page of the announcement:

verdad-letter

The remainder of the 17 page letter contained a detailed plan of the operations, from beginning to end, the current owners of the mineral rights, and other background information. (The complete pdf file is available here.)

Perhaps of most concern is the actual location of the wellsite. This was shown in a black & white aerial shot in Verdad’s letter, which included the latitude and longitude of the site. I used that information to to create this Google map of the location:

As you can see, this is about three miles north of the center of Windsor…1.5 miles east of Timnath Community Park…and there are a scattering of residences within a half a mile of the site, the required notification zone (see a poster photo below). Which is how I learned about it, through one of the local residents who received the above letter from Verdad, and who attended a meeting of the Fort Collins Sustainability Group. This was the Salon that took place on October 24, 2025, the Safe and Healthy Colorado Campaign webinar. Please see the video for that excellent presentation on the current campaign by 350 Colorado to create a safer and healthier Colorado by phasing out fracking by 2030.

I was curious enough to use the QR code in the letter. It took me to a form to enter my name and contact info, and when asked if I had any questions, I replied “Why are you building this so close to residences? ” but I haven’t heard back…oh well! 🙄

On the night of the meeting, I carpooled over to Windsor with a number of fellow concerned citizens from Fort Collins. When we arrived, there was a line out the door for people filling out forms by hand with their contact info (so much for the advance registration… ). Once inside, it was a clear that a number of people wanted to hear what Verdad had to say:

Arranged on tables were about five or six big posters with maps and information about the proposed drilling operation. As well, there were two large screen displays with glitzy corporate slides describing what a great company Verdad is, and how this would be done very safely, using the latest technology, etc:

This is the half mile radius around the wellsite, wherein all residences must be notified. (click to see larger image)

After milling around for about twenty minutes, I, at least, had seen about all there was to see. The half dozen Verdad staff that were mingling with the crowd were there to answer any questions; but when asked if there would be a presentation of any kind, which would address the entire crowd, and allow for public Q&A (like most public events of this kind), the answer was, No, they were not planning to do that. Well, that’s that, I thought.

But then something unexpected happened. One of the locally notified residents, who lives within that perimeter boundary, took matters into her own hands. I’ll call her Ms. K, to protect her identity. Ms. K was not satisfied with Verdad’s “rolling forum” style of a meeting, and, since this was a public facility, and she was a local resident who paid taxes to support this community center, she thought there very well might be a public address system built into this room. She went to find out.

Turns out, she was right! And soon returned with community center staff who turned it on, and handed Ms. K a wireless mic — and that’s when the meeting really got started!

Once the real meeting started, people from the audience were only too happy to express themselves publicly, and share their views with the audience, and ask questions to the Verdad staff, who were then forced to reply:

Audience member expressing disapproval of the proposed operation.

Under more direct questioning from the audience about how application process the drilling application would proceed, we came to find out that a well informed person was in the house: Brett Cavanagh, the director of Oil and Gas Energy Department for Weld County. Mr Cavanagh was able to answer some the questions from the audience. This would never have happened without Ms. K!

One burning question that came up was: what can local residents do to stop this operation from even happening? The answer from Mr Kavanaugh was: nothing. First, the application has to be filed with the state (i.e. the ECMC, Energy and Carbon Management Commission); only then protests can be filed. But, ultimately, the decision will be made by the five commissioners that head up the ECMC…who are appointed by the governor.

More detailed questions kept coming. This resulted in one of the Verdad officials grabbing a poster with a map on it, indicating such things as: where would the truck traffic go? Which local residents would be notified?

Another burning question was: how much water would this operation need? Where would it come from? This resulted in another Verdad representative stepping up to the mic, one who was familiar with their drilling operations:

In answer to the amount of water, the answer was 700,000 barrels per well. Given this critical piece of data, we can do the math on the total water impact:

700,000 barrels X 42 gallons/barrel X 22 wells = 646,800,000 gallons for all the wells

At 325,851 gallons / acre-foot = 1,985 acre-ft of water for all the wells.

One acre-ft is enough for approximately two families for a year. So, this 22 well operation will consume the amount of water for

1,985 * 2 = 3,970 families for a year.

If we approximate an average family at 3.15 (see here for the reference), this means:

3,970 families x 3.15 people/avg family = 12,506 people.

In 2024, the entire population of Windsor was estimated to be 44,769. So, by the above calculations, this one drilling operation of 22 wells is going to use same amount of water used by about

12,506 / 44,769 = .28

or about 28 per cent of the population of Windsor over a year…over one fourth of the entire city population!

And this is only covering this one operation. One wonders what would be the water consumption figure for the entire Weld County — with some 18,000 wells in operation.

As far as the source of the water, all the Verdad would say is that it would come from “agricultural and industrial sources.” One of the other attendees later commented how she had once seen legal documents showing how such water had been purchased at heavy discounts from the price paid by the public…like 10¢ on the dollar.

There were two other informative officials who spoke. One was a lady from the ECMC staff:

And another was a man from the local water board:

I don’t recall exactly what were their main points; but their answers did help to answer some of the questions of the audience in the moment.

At one point during all this, Ms. K asked the crowd directly “How many of you are opposed to this?” Hands shot up from all but a few of the people present.

But at other times in the back-&-forth Q&A session, two points were clear:

Why must Verdad Resources drill in such close proximity to residential areas? Why can’t they drill farther away?
Why were only some of the local residents notified? (Not all of those inside the notification perimeter were notified, but who spoke out quite strongly at the meeting.)

The representatives from Verdad and government agencies did not have answers for these highly relevant questions.

Since the “Estimated Timeframe” poster shows that Verdad expects to start construction in 3rd quarter 2026, then begin drilling in 4th quarter. At least the local residents have been given enough lead time to get their concerns before Weld County and the ECMC.

But this will only be the beginning of the story, I’m afraid. The O&G industry has a history of getting their way in this state…but perhaps that pattern is about to change.

Our hats are off to the courageous residents who took command of the meeting, and transformed a passive, corporate show-&-tell into a true display of community spirit. We at the Larimer Alliance stand with them, and wish them the best in their fight to keep this operation out of their community.

Larimer Alliance website & blog

Monthly Archives: November 2025

The Larimer Alliance needs some new members!