Salon.com > John Hickenlooper

Fracking fights back

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Most of the legal news about Colorado these days revolves around whether or not the federal government will try to use the courts to prevent the state from implementing its new marijuana law. That's certainly an important story, but arguably just as important is the impending -- and possibly precedent setting -- legal battle here over the future of oil and gas drilling after the city of Longmont voted to ban hydraulic fracturing (aka "fracking") within its boundaries.

That vote wasn't some fluke. Following Pittsburgh's lead, both Republican and Democratic residents in the city voted overwhelmingly to ban the controversial natural gas extraction process after reports from (among others) the Environmental Protection Agency, Duke University, the University of Colorado and the fossil fuel industry itself documented fracking's potential hazards. Yet, despite all of this, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) just announced that his administration will officially back any lawsuit brought by those same firms against Longmont's new law.

Colorado governor signs marijuana legalization into law

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:01:00 +0000

DENVER (AP) -- Marijuana for recreational use became legal in Colorado Monday, when the governor took the procedural step of declaring the voter-approved change part of the state constitution.

Colorado became the second state after Washington to allow pot use without a doctor's recommendation. Both states prohibit public use of the drug, and commercial sales in Colorado and Washington won't be permitted until after regulations are written next year.

Hickenlooper, a Democrat, opposed the measure but had no veto power over the voter-approved amendment to the state constitution. He tweeted his declaration Monday and sent an executive order to reporters by email after the fact. That prevented a countdown to legalization as seen in Washington, where the law's supporters gathered to smoke in public.

"Voters were loud and clear on Election Day," Hickenlooper said in his statement. The law allowed him until Jan. 5 to declare marijuana legal.

Adults over 21 in Colorado may now possess up to an ounce of marijuana, or six plants. Public use and sale of the drug remain illegal.

Colorado’s fracking fight gets ugly

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:00:00 +0000

One of the best-known and most often invoked tropes in our political mythology is the one about the distant big-city bureaucrat conniving with a politician and monied interests to undermine the will of Small Town, USA. It's a parable that you will probably hear in some form in the upcoming presidential debates. But while it is a cartoonish cliche, the caricature nonetheless persists because brouhahas like the battle over oil and gas drilling in Colorado periodically reminded us of the parable's general accuracy.

In that fight, things are getting ugly, fast. As I reported a few months ago, for all the national headlines this conflict has generated, and for all the talk of energy on the presidential campaign, the fight over hydraulic fracturing (whose safety was again called into question last week) will be won or lost at the most local of local levels. Already, the industry has been successful in convincing many states to avoid enforcing basic regulations already on the books. Now there's a push to crush new rules before they are put on the books. Indeed, here in the state hosting the first presidential debate - a state with one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world - the distant bureaucrats, politicians and monied interests are deploying every instrument at their disposal to quash local communities' efforts to create basic quality-of-life safeguards.

Drug war hypocrite No. 1

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:15:00 +0000

If you heard a drug dealer denigrate his competitor's product as unsafe, would you trust his criticism? Or would you think he's a hypocrite with ulterior motives? Last week, thanks to Colorado's Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, these became the central political questions in the fight over whether to continue America's destructive War on Marijuana.

The front line in that war is Colorado, where the federal government has interfered with its system of state-regulated medical marijuana businesses, despite President Obama's promise to refrain from doing so. Countering that crackdown is a 2012 ballot initiative that would make Colorado the first state to fully legalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol.

Enter Hickenlooper. In the same month a poll showed majority support for the marijuana legalization initiative, the governor blasted the measure for allegedly "detract(ing) from efforts to make Colorado the healthiest state" and for "send(ing) the wrong message to kids."