Published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan on October 27, 2018 

At a private event with Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, he stressed our dire situation. We’re in global warming and ignoring that doesn’t change it. 

We have reached the 1-degree C tipping point and going over 0.5 degrees more will be ugly. Watch documentaries “Chasing Coral” or “Chasing Ice” for irrefutable evidence. 

Oil and gas says Colorado cannot survive without their taxes. Consider: 

The severance tax rate from the leg.colorado.gov site, while huge in 2009, was barely above 0 percent in 2016–2017. 

Home values/property taxes will drop as wells get closer to homes. 

The industry will go away. Fossil fuels are a limited resource. 

Extraction began plugging wells drilled in 2013. Not something to rest your financial well-being on as a state. 

After they leave, it will cost Colorado hundreds of millions of dollars to plug the abandoned wells. 

Matt Lepore, former executive director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, admitted in 2017 that 4,000 wells in Colorado are already orphaned and plugging costs about $85,000 per well: already $340 million. 

Lost jobs? Learn about fracking automation in oil fields at https://bloom.bg/2MsaWaV. 

Transitioning from fracking to alternative energy jobs are better for workers, families, health, and the health of people near fracking and the planet since 1.5 degrees C is dangerously close. 

Deborah Rodgers, Obama’s fracking financial adviser, revealed the bundling/selling of oil and gas “product” like the housing boom. It’s a shell game, a commodity on Wall Street. 

Elizabeth Hudetz, Fort Collins