One of the cognitive disconnects one encounters living or working in Boulder County is the relative urgency about addressing climate change locally and the absolute determination to frack, baby, frack in much of the rest of the state.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a former oil industry geologist, regularly signals where he thinks the political center of gravity is by making it clear his long-term bromance with the oil and gas industry remains bromantic as ever. Just last week, Hickenlooper was the featured speaker at another event organized by the Colorado Petroleum Council, an arm of the national American Petroleum Institute.

On a variety of issues, from increasing required setbacks separating drilling rigs from homes to holding drillers accountable for earthquake damage caused by drilling-related activity, there was no daylight between the governor and the industry. Both are against all that stuff.

Into this headwind ride state Reps. Mike Foote of Lafayette and Sue Ryden of Aurora, and state Sens. Matt Jones of Louisville and Jessie Ulibarri of Commerce City, with a bill to give local communities the same land-use decision-making power over oil and gas operations that they have over every other industrial activity in the state.

The bill has no chance of becoming law, both because the state Senate is controlled by Republicans and because the governor stands ready to play goalie with his veto pen for his friends in the industry should anything unaccountably slip through to his desk.

But if you believe in local control, as Republicans so often say they do, it’s a perfectly reasonable proposal. The largest paper in the state claims it would allow communities to “effectively seize mineral property rights . . . with no intention of providing a cent in return.” This is the usual industry bogeyman, but it’s patently false. The bill does nothing to change the analysis as to whether something is a taking.

“If there were to be a zoning that was determined to be a taking, then it would go through the same process as any other zoning that would result in a taking,” Foote noted in an interview with the Camera.

All the bill would do is remove the state preemption that allows it to trump local decision-makers’ land-use decisions in this one area. That preemption is a relic of a bygone era when the oil and gas industry needed state help to gain a foothold in Colorado. That time has long since passed.

Most of the state seems happy with the tradeoff of economic stimulus in exchange for the impacts of drilling operations, and that’s fine. If you believe in local control, you believe in local control. But a few jurisdictions in our neck of the woods — the city of Boulder, Boulder County, Broomfield, Fort Collins, Lafayette and Longmont — have indicated through votes of their citizens or leaders that they would like more local control than they have. Some residents of these communities would prefer not to have drilling rigs within 500 feet of their homes. Go figure.

It is disappointing that a Democratic governor would have so little regard for these folks, but we understand where his bread is buttered. As soon as oil prices make the local fracking boom economically viable again, you can expect these land-use issues to come roaring back with a vengeance.

So we salute Mike Foote and Matt Jones for fighting for the Boulder County communities they represent, even if it remains a Don Quixote mission for now.

—Dave Krieger, for the editorial board. Email: kriegerd@dailycamera.com. Twitter: @DaveKrieger

