The northern Colorado cities of Fort Collins and Loveland could be the latest along the Front Range to temporarily ban oil and gas drilling and the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing.
Both cities will consider temporary drilling moratoriums in separate city council meetings tonight.
Loveland city councilman Rob Trenary told the Fort Collins Coloradoan that the potential for drilling within his town's boundaries would be a "dramatically new scenario."
“We need to have time to examine all of that and not leave a potential drilling company in the lurch possibly having to deal with retroactive enforcement of some provision.”
Trenary's concerns mirror those of local officials in other cities and counties along the Front Range that have passed similar temporary moratoriums recently. Such bans have also sparked legal questions, as we've been reporting.
Earlier this month, the city of Longmont's passage of new drilling regulations through local zoning codes could be seen as a test to the state's long-standing authority to regulate all oil and gas drilling.
Loveland's meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 tonight and there's a link to an agenda here. The Fort Collins meetingbegins at six, though the proposed oil and gas moratorium is slated at the end of the agenda.
