You will hear claims about lost oil and gas jobs

YOU SHOULD KNOW that job losses are used as a scare tactic. The number of jobs in question and the economic benefits are greatly overstated. Including related businesses, oil and gas employs less than 1% of the state’s workforce (U.S. Department of Labor, categorized under “Mining and Logging”). Colorado’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the nation and has dropped even lower even as oil and gas laid off workers in the past few years. Many positions are filled by workers from out of state, so these jobs are not helping Coloradans. On top of that, oil and gas jobs are extremely dangerous with deaths and injuries a common occurrence in Colorado. In contrast, tourism accounts for over 11% of Colorado jobs, with some of those jobs at risk from the negative consequences of fracking.

You will hear that Colorado relies on state and local revenue from oil and gas

YOU SHOULD KNOW that because of several tax breaks and court-ordered refunds, the state is currenly giving more money to the industry than it is receiving in severance taxes. Colorado has one of the lowest effective severance tax rates in the nation, and the resulting income to the state is as volatile as the industry itself. All of this comes at a time when the need for oil and gas severance tax revenues is greatest: to pay for more inspectors, to map flowlines (as demonstrated by the Firestone explosion), and to plug hundreds of abandoned wells at $82,500 each, with more abandoned wells likely. There is also a time lag on getting this money to impacted counties. Taxpayers are stuck with the burden of mounting costs for road repair and construction, healthcare, emergencies, and drill site clean-up. Some groups report that drilling is actually a net loss for their county.

You will hear claims that Colorado’s economy will fail if we reduce fracking

YOU SHOULD KNOW that Colorado’s economy is diverse, and not dependent on a single industry. If anything, Colorado should avoid becoming dependent on a boom-and-bust industry like oil and gas extraction. As the amount of available oil/gas dwindles and becomes unprofitable to extract (compared to renewable energy), “fracking” will become a dead-end industry. It is not something the state or its workers should rely on. In fact, economies that do not rely on mining or extractive industries are shown to do better economically in the long run. Moving to a sustainable, green economy will produce more long-term jobs, increased economic benefits and lead to better environmental outcomes. Something else to know is that many oil and gas operators in Colorado have been operating at a loss, continuing to drill new wells at a frantic pace to pay their debts as the productivity of old wells diminishes. This is unsustainable and bad economics.

You will hear that there are no health studies on fracking

YOU SHOULD KNOW that there are more than 700 peer-reviewed studies on the impacts of fracking, and most of them were published in the last 3-5 years. Of the studies looking specifically at health impacts, more than 80% document risks or actual harms. Just as the chemicals involved in “fracking are varied, the health impacts are varied and range from stress, headaches, nosebleeds and asthma to long-term impacts like increases in heart disease, endocrine disruption and disorders, cancers, congenital birth defects, and permanent brain damage to children. “Fracking is especially hazardous to infants and children.

You will hear that fracking has been done safely for over 60 years

YOU SHOULD KNOW that modern “unconventional” drilling is not your grandfather’s fracking method. This very industrial, multi-well, horizontally-drilled, high-pressure operation using incredibly toxic chemicals and high volumes of water has only been in widespread use for just over 16 years. The other huge problem is that “fracking” is happening on a much larger scale and is now much closer to our communities than it was in the past.

You will hear that Colorado already has some of the toughest regulations in the United States