Today, Indivisible Durango teamed with other individual resistance fighters as well as other aligned groups to send a message to Colorado Senator Cory Gardner. Again. I can’t imagine seeing newspaper stories describing his local office being picketed, again, sets all that well with our good Senator. No politician wants coverage of the drumbeat against him. The last time we picketed the Senator’s local office, not only did the Durango Herald publish a story with pictures, we received a mention in the NY Times. Sadly for our Senator, the NYT article was about unresponsive GOP Senators...
Before massing at our Senator’s local office, many folks—a capacity crowd actually, standing room only—packed our County Commissioners meeting. On their agenda was this: “Ratification of a Letter in Support of Federal Public Lands-Continue Federal Ownership (Requested by Jan Mayer-Gawlik, Administration Department)” You can read the letter here, it’s glorious & worth a read, but it’s also in pdf format… laplatacountyco.iqm2.com/…see: 2015-18 Stating Value of Public Lands. If you were looking for a letter that expresses how valuable public lands are, financially and emotionally, to a community, check it out—it’s really outstanding!
If there’s one issue to bring out supporters on both sides of the political aisle, THIS is the issue. We’re lucky here because...both sides agree! We love our open, public, federally-owned land here! In fact, 38% of the land mass of our County is federally owned AND MANAGED, and we like that. There are many folks employed in managing that land here, from National Forest to BLM employees, and other Fed. agencies, all federally paid. In addition to those wages being earned and spent here, that same beautiful land draws tourists from around the globe. Tourism & the outdoors industry is not only our financial life blood, what those tourists come here for, local hunters, fishers, hikers, bikers, horseback riders, skiers, and well the list of users is very long and suffice to say; we live here because we enjoy being outdoors, on “our” land. And while the natural gas extraction industry is quite large here—those workers like to hunt, fish, horseback, etc here as well. Here in SW Colorado, our Publicly-owned National Forests are truly the embodiment of the National Forest’s motto, “Land of Many Uses”.
I’m happy to report to you that every public comment, letter, & email was in favor of the letter to be sent to other elected officials in the Colorado delegation--locally, State officials, and Federal Reps. I’m even happier to tell you that our 3 County Commissioners voted unanimously to accept the letter as written & send it. Of those 3 County Commissioners, Kossacks helped elect 2 of them! Both Gwen Lachelt & Julie Westendorff were supported by readers of this site when I solicited contributions for them last year—so my county thanks YOU, and reminds you: all politics is local. Here’s a bonus—our 3rd Commissioner, Brad Blake, founded our local Tea Party. And EVEN the TEA Party guy (ran as a Republican) voted in favor of keeping public lands federally owned! Like I said, if there’s one thing we all agree on around here…
Having assured that our local County Commissioners were representing us as we desired, it was time to move on to our next protest. Organized by our local Indivisible group, and supported by Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Trout Unlimited, San Juan Citizens Alliance, among other groups, we moved the show over to Senator Gardner’s office. You’ll be happy to know my Senator doesn’t pay those high downtown rents Durango can charge, no, his office is in a strip mall 2-3-4 miles outside town. And upon arriving there, we found a welcome from the owners of the strip mall—where my Senator maintains his local, public office:
Now, we’re a small town, and if you’re from a small town you know—neighborliness counts for A LOT. Discussion ensued between the “Are we sheep?!!” crowd & the “Hey, we’ve got 4 people scheduled to talk to the Senator’s staff, let’s not blow that. We’ll still make the Durango Herald & the Durango Telegraph—there’s too many of us to be ignored” crowd. There was sulking, but comity & neighborliness won the day. We would not disrupt our local businesses, we support them. Instead, we would take our 150 people down to the easement next to the road, and later, we’ll let Senator Gardner know: It is complete bullshit that his office is in a place we may not exercise our First Amendment Rights. (that’s 202/ 224-5941 for Sen. Gardner if you were wondering, just sayin) But wait: Added bonus, in that now we’re right near the frontage road & Hwy 550/160. We’ll take those 1000’s of eyes driving past!
The reason we had assembled was to express our support for an Obama administration/BLM Rule on the extraction of natural gas. The Denver Post has a good explanation of the situation: www.denverpost.com/… wherein they say “Congressional Republicans are poised to zap the new federal rule requiring oil and gas companies drilling on public lands to control their hydrocarbon emissions.” when talking about the Methane Capture Rule.
And “The Bureau of Land Management rule aimed at reducing air pollution from venting, burn-off and leaks of methane was among the first Obama administration rules that lawmakers this week worked to repeal under a law that allows reversals when a new president takes office.
Lawmakers invoked the Congressional Review Act, which lets them roll back executive action taken during the past 60 legislative work days if a rule imposes excessive costs, exceeds agency authority or is redundant. Congress this week killed a rule aimed at protecting streams near coal mines; President Donald Trump still must sign off on their action.
The BLM rule requiring companies to control emissions on federally managed public land took effect Jan. 17. A federal judge in Wyoming had rejected an industry legal effort to block the rule. It was modeled after Colorado’s rule requiring oil and gas companies to capture rather than burn off or vent methane, a heat-trapping gas linked to climate change.” (bolding by diarist)
After listening to George Lakoff speak on ‘framing’, we know this regulation is actually a “Protection” for us here in the Four Corners, as well as for everyone downwind of ...the entire San Juan Basin, which is most of you. We can point to where this protection is truly a win-win for everyone. By blocking the venting of methane (a precursor to ozone) as well as other toxic gases that come along with that sweet, sweet methane out of the ground, not only do we help our local environment and our national environment, we help to slow the progress of Global Climate Change. And that other win? The profits of the extraction industry rise, as they are able sell, instead of lose to the atmosphere, that gas—a not-insignificant amount. In fact, the extraction industry says that in less than 12 months, they have recouped the cost of this ‘protection’, and have indeed seen a pleasant rise in sellable product, and, ergo, profits. (More gas to sell with no drilling or fracking = an extractor’s dream!) Nice huh? Can you stand a third win? Okay, how about this: We collect taxes on that newly captured methane that is sold! Woo hoo! Frankly, this Protection has me nearly tired of winning!
And about that high-lighted section above from the Denver Post. What isn’t quite said after the “modeled after Colorado’s rule” part is that, sure, Colorado has a great rule-the best rule, it’s terrific. So terrific that the Fed’s adopted it. But New Mexico? They don’t have no stinkin rule, er, ‘protection’. Arizona? Utah? Nope & nope. Durango sits about 20 miles north of the New Mexico line, and ~60 miles east from AZ & UT. So while we’re gonna make the extractors in CO abide, without a Federal ‘Protection’, those other States won’t have a Rule at all. All our State gets to do then is breathe in their f’n pollution & watch the enormous methane hot spot above us grow. My County has a little over 3000 natural gas wells(3400?)—the property taxes on the land around them & royalties are enough to pay nearly half our county budget. The neighboring county in New Mexico? 35,000 wells. They even want to drill right up into Chaco (Canyon) Cultural Historical Park, a sacred Native American site, a World Heritage Site, & a National Park Service area. And I shouldn’t even have to tell you that Bears Ears National Monument (Thanks, Obama!) is just over the State line in Utah. There is gas extraction going on all around us—but only my State has or had a Methane Capture Rule, er, Protection, until the BLM mandated it across the country. And while it became mandatory nationally just a month ago—it has been in force in my State long enough to know: it’s a win-win-win ‘Protection’—so much winning! Can I throw in yet another win? Okay. This ‘Protection’ requires parts & materials, and folks to install & monitor them. More jobs, and even more taxes being paid locally! Man, I’m going to need a chair from all this winning. :D
So why does the GOP want to relax this ‘Protection’, and why use the Congressional Review Act to dismantle it? By using the CRA, the ‘Protection’ can NEVER again be brought before Congress! (‘we had it, we got rid of it, don’t bring it ‘round here no more’—that’s a Law!) Oh shit! Yeah I know! Why get rid of a great Protection? I wish I knew. Even the stakeholders aren’t losing on this one. It’s good for the environment AND the extractor’s purse AND local payrolls & tax revenue. I can only assume that because it is an Obama era regulation, and less than 60 days old (meaning the CRA can be used), it is bad & ugly & dirty & horrible because...Obama. If anyone else knows another reason why, please lay it out in the comments, thanks!
While I may not know why the GOP Congress wants to remove a ‘Protection’ from me—I DO know they definitely want to. And, as you know, my neighbors & me—we LOVE our outdoors & environment. So if my Republican Senator is going to even consider (and he is, oh--he is) voting against a ‘Protection’ for us, he’s going to hear about it!
Let’s roll the pics, shall we? Here’s how 150 Durangotangs (we counted!) let their Senator know: “KEEP THE METHANE CAPTURE RULE!” And keep your lousy hands off OUR public lands—they are not for sale!
We were all having a fine time, listening to speakers from the supporting groups & voicing our discontent with our Senator, Cory Gardner. Until…
DUN DUN DUN!
The Man showed up:
That guy in the brownshirt, er, jacket? The manager of the strip mall. His land, he can sick those cops on us. Except: 150 of us, 2 of them.
And since this is Durango, there is one constant when outside: Dogs! Yay! Rumor has it that these were, in fact, paid protesters—2 biscuits per protest.
So, let’s review our Resistance work for today. Descended en masse upon our County Commissioners to support their drafting of a letter to let everyone know—we love our federally-owned public lands, check. Proceeded to our MIA Republican Senator’s local office to voice our concern about a removal of one of our ‘PROTECTIONS’, check. Annoyed a strip mall manager, check. Listened to speakers discuss our agenda & inform us of our Senator’s & Congress’ actions, check. Petted a couple dogs, check. All in all, a fine day of resistance.
#RESIST!!
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UPDATE: The Durango Herald is out, and your diarist graces the front page with his sign! The article is about the first protest we had today, at our County Commissioners meeting. Read all about it!
durangoherald.com/...