EDITORIAL: City fracking panel searching for a problem

It’s difficult to understand just what Aurora lawmakers want from a yet-to-be created oil-and-gas industry advisory committee, but the way it’s being proposed, the group probably wouldn’t provide anything new and certainly not what’s really needed.

Aurora city council this week agreed to elevate its informal oil-and-gas committee to become a sanctioned, structured advisory board, complete with mission statement, bylaws and officially appointed members.

Immediately after agreeing the city needs more formal advice on how to handle drilling and fracking operations that move ever-closer to homes — or homes that move ever-closer to drilling and fracking operations — city legislators couldn’t agree who should be giving the advice. This disagreement comes even though almost all city council members are either tolerant of or cheerful proponents of oil companies dipping into petroleum stores far beneath Aurora’s prairie.

As proposed, the panel would seat three residents who live in neighborhoods where drilling and fracking are a real deal, three oil-industry types, and three people who own land in Aurora that are either cashing in on deep oil and gas, or would love to.

The first six seats make sense. People who live near these operations can tell city lawmakers first-hand accounts of what city policies and rules are actually like to wake up with every day. And lawmakers would certainly benefit from feedback from petroleum officials about what city rules and regulations mean in cash and practical effects on their bottom lines.

The other three seats held by “landowners” serve no purpose at all. Instead, three seats should be filled by someone from the city’s planning department, a state oil and gas expert, and a member of Arapahoe Responsible Energy Advocates.

But even with this structure, it’s difficult to understand what the city is expecting. The city doesn’t need a committee to solicit comment from residents or oil officials on proposed policy changes. And Aurora, like every Colorado community, is under the thumb of state regulators who call all of the important shots.

What the city does need is a board that can evaluate the small number of oil-and-gas drilling and fracking permit requests, and advise the city council on how to manage what little wiggle room is afforded municipalities under state law. These are going to be things like hours that heavy equipment can be moved on and off of work-sites, screening and similar issues. While the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission is already equipped to handle these issues, if bringing affected or sympathetic homeowners into the mix, formally, creates an outcome more acceptable to everyone, that’s not in the mix.

And regardless, Aurora needs to be ready for statewide voters to take the fracking issue into their own hands, likely empowering cities like Aurora to call the shots on drilling and fracking that this panel couldn’t accommodate.

For now, residents who live near these operations want the city to force drillers and frackers to mitigate the impact of the extraction. If this committee wins them sympathetic ears on city council, it’s better than nothing. Oil companies want a conduit to the council dais to prevent them from mitigating away their profits, something the current structure already accommodates.

So unless Aurora is willing to create a new part of government that helps to create harmony among everyone affected by individual drilling and fracking projects, why bother?