Proposition 112 Rejected: Voters Said No To Oil & Gas Setbacks

ACROSS COLORADO – Colorado voters have shot down a measure mandating 2,500-foot setbacks for oil and gas wells from human dwellings. As of 4 a.m. local time, 1,082,392 people, or 57 percent, voted against the measure to 825,036 people, or 23 percent, who voted for it, election night results show.

The $31 billion oil and gas industry spent a staggering $34 million dollars on advertising against the measure, through a single PAC called Protect Colorado. Detractors of the ballot measure say it would have all-but-destroyed the oil and gas industry in Colorado, dragging down the economy with it and killing thousands of Colorado jobs.

Coloradans put the measure on the ballot as population growth brings conflict between the extraction industry and new homes on the Front Range, especially north of Denver in the especially hydrocarbon-rich Denver Julesberg basin.

Backers of 112 said there are already 50,000 oil and gas wells in the state grandfathered in, some as close as 350 feet to schools and homes, exposing residents to noxious emissions from well sites, like toluene, formaldehyde, xylene and cancer-causing benzene.

An April, 2017 house explosion in Firestone that killed two people was linked to leaks from an uncapped gas well, and more than 400 uncapped wells were found within dangerous distances from homes and other buildings across the state.

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Image: Image: Silver Creek Elementary, in Thornton. Oil and gas operations are 350 feet away from the playground. (Photo by Ted Wood/The Story Group via Colorado Independent)