The Green Party of Colorado elected Art Goodtimes and Bill Bartlett as state co-chairs for 2011-2012 at the 2011 Annual State Meeting in Prospect, Colo. on June 25. Also elected during the meeting were Dan Sage as state treasurer, Eric Fried as state secretary, and Charlie Green, Victor Forsythe, and Ryan Jones as Colorado’s national delegates to the Green Party of the U.S.
The Green Party of Colorado also passed a resolution at the state meeting to oppose fracking in Colorado. Fracking is a commonly accepted term for hydro-fracturing, a process where water, sand and chemicals are injected into the earth at high pressure to liberate natural gas that would be otherwise inaccessible, and to bring it to the surface, according to Frack Action. Though the gas industry has been using this method across Colorado, it raises many issues, as follows:
- Vast amounts of water are required.
- Fracking uses various chemical lubricants, many of which are toxic.
- The chemicals used in fracking are considered proprietary, and are therefore secret.
- The water used in fracking poses a major disposal problem.
- There have been over a thousand instances of groundwater contamination in areas near fracking sites.
- Fracking has never been subject to an independent assessment of its environmental impact.
- Fracking isn’t subject to federal regulation. (This was done via an EPA exemption pushed through Congress by then Vice-President Dick Cheney in 2005.)
- The full long-term environmental impact of fracking is unknown.
Read more about this issue at frackaction.com.
To read more about what happened at the state meeting, read the 2011 Annual State Meeting Minutes.
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