starboard penry strohm

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see also CSI / roundtable
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HIRED BEN STEIN?!
</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kristin

Strohm is a leading voice for free enterprise and economic opportunity

in Colorado, with a career spanning small business, public policy, and

philanthropy.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She was one of the original founders of CSI, and for almost a decade,

she served as a strategic adviser to the research institute until

taking a full-time leadership role as President & CEO in early 2019.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Previously, as a small business owner, Kristin was President and

Co-Founder of the Starboard Group, one of the nation’s most influential

political fundraising consulting firms.</b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She is actively involved in the philanthropic community. Kristin has

been honored to serve as a board member for a number of charities,

including the Women’s Bean Project, the Denver Area Council of the Boy

Scouts of America, National Vote at Home Institute, and the Barton

Institute for Philanthropy and Social Enterprise. She is currently Board

President of the <b>Strohm-Link Family Foundation</b> and serves on the Board

of Trustees of her alma mater, Coe College, where she founded the

college’s Tri Delta Leadership Scholarship.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kristin studied history and Spanish at Coe College and later earned an M.B.A. from the University of Denver.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kristin has been honored by the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce as one of the&nbsp;<i>Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Colorado</i>&nbsp;and elected as one of ColoradoBiz Magazine’s Top 50 Most Influential Young Professionals. In 2016, she received the&nbsp;<i>Ally Award</i>&nbsp;from

the<b> pro-LGTBQ organization One Colorado in recognition of her work in

support of gay rights. She was also in the founding class of the

American Enterprise Institute’s Leadership Network and is a proud

member.</b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kristin and her husband Josh Penry currently make their home in the Denver area with their four children.</font></p>

<hr />

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Email Kristin Strohm:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:Kristin@csinstituteco.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kristin@csinstituteco.org</a>
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To help the future of CSI Arizona, please consider becoming a member or a donor! Visit: <a href="https://commonsenseinstituteaz.org/donate-now/">www.commonsenseinstituteaz.org/donate-now</a></font></p>

<hr />

<h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Guiding Principles:</font></h2>

<ol><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>FREE ENTERPRISE</strong>
Common sense policies should

govern market structures with minimal interference while promoting ideas

to flourish through competition and protecting individual rights.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>ECONOMIC VITALITY</strong>
Promote or create a foundation

of thoughtful policies for Colorado’s economic vitality with a

diversity of businesses to enhance the overall quality of life for all

Coloradans.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>INDIVIDUAL OPPORTUNITY</strong>
Enable opportunity for

individuals and families to prosper, grow, and make Colorado home. We

all should be afforded the opportunity to achieve the American Dream.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>DYNAMIC RESEARCH</strong>
Provide research that is based

on fact and connects us through a diverse and dynamic economy. Policy

changes can often have broad and long-term ripple effects. We utilize

dynamic economic models, and other tools, to simulate economic impact

scenarios across Colorado’s economy.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>NON PARTISANSHIP</strong>
We believe it is critical to work across the aisles on positive solutions to address Colorado’s biggest challenges.</font></li></ol></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11 2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">exiting public service, at least for now, soon-to-be former state Senator Josh Penry takes his <a href="http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/exsenator_penry_to_accept_job/">first real job</a> off the public dole–going to work for an energy astro-turfing firm: <a href="http://thebusinesstimes.com/oil-shale-experiment-continues/">EIS Solutions</a>.

</span></font><blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">EIS Solutions handles government affairs and public relations for companies involved in the energy industry.</span></font></p></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

</span></font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">EIS Solutions appears to be a bit of a family-affair: another name

associated with this company is Tim Pollard, brother-in-law to Penry,

now himself spinning through the lobbyist door.</span> &nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Astroturfing the Western Slope?</b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EIS Solutions use to have a readily searchable website. Although most

of it was behind a ‘clients only’ password protection–there was some

information for the public to peruse. &nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not so much anymore. &nbsp;Although the company is still in existence–and

its principals are still touting less regulations, more drilling,

digging and tax benefits for their wealthy benefactors–learning about

whom exactly they represent has become a bit more murky. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Twitty archives. &nbsp;The following comes from a .pdf file (<a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDAQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coloradomining.org%2FContent%2FPrograms_pdf%2FW%2520Haerle.pdf&rct=j&q=EIS%20Solutions%20haerle&ei=oizxTLulNY-asAP44rTOCw&usg=AFQjCNFwR7ns2Mcua-GpLE_v-z3A3W6_yw&sig2=cVPEZtCBMbzbcnOUsNfiBg&cad=rja">currently available here</a>) that provides a glimpse into some of the goals and tactics of this corporate-controlled ‘grass roots’ firm.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>EIS Solutions–which was founded mid-decade in Grand Junction by

former XCel Energy executive Wade Haerle–specializes in creating

‘citizen’ advocacy such as:</b></span></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

</span></font><blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">•Organize public hearing attendance
</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
•Facilitate “on message” testimony
</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
•Post-hearing follow-up with supporters
</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
•Maximize positive news coverage</span></font></p></blockquote>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the projects that EIS Solutions took on was creating a mob of

angry roughnecks to push back against the sensible, and minor, oil and

gas regulations that Colorado recently began to implement. &nbsp;Who can

forget the ‘Don’t Rule Us Out Stickers’ bought and paid for, no doubt,

by Big Oil and their corporate astroturfers. &nbsp;</font></p>

<blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Our core competency is grassroots coalition building.

EIS Solutions connects the goal of CEOs and senior management to people

on the ground to ensure that projects come to fruition. On a project

that’s worth millions or billions of dollars of revenue after a client

gets it to market, it’s critical to successfully navigate the NEPA

process and avoid delays. We know NEPA. So, we can speed the process and

save our clients significant costs. And we shorten the time to get a

permit, so our clients can start their projects and begin getting a

return on their investment. In short, we create a path to advocacy.”</font></p></blockquote>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Think those concerned about water quality might pose a problem for your hopes to mine for uranium? &nbsp;Who you gonna call?</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why, EIS-Solutions of course!</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, Mr. Penry’s new lobbying firm takes some pride in their

ability to fool policy-makers and the public about their true

intentions, for instance they tout this apparent mark of their success:</font></p>

<blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Looking through the form letters, from environmental

groups, they’re concerned about environmental impacts. A lot of the

individual letters were from local folks supportive of the mine and

interested in the economic benefits of the mine,” said David Boyd from

the BLM.</font></p></blockquote>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And while it has become a little more difficult to track down

particulars of this energy consulting firm, bullshit still stinks. &nbsp;You

can hide it behind some bunting and spin, you can spray all the perfume

you want: astroturf may look ‘green’ but its readily apparent what it

really is–plastic manufactured crap. &nbsp;&nbsp;
</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions">https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>EIS Solutions</b> is a Grand Junction, Colorado-based <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Public_relations" title="Public relations">public relations</a> and <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Astroturfing" class="mw-redirect" title="Astroturfing">astroturfing</a> firm that handles government affairs, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lobbying" title="Lobbying">lobbying</a>

and PR for companies involved in the energy industry. The group's

principle spokesperson for energy industry issues in Colorado is <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Curtis_Moore" title="Curtis Moore">Curtis Moore</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup></font>

</p>

<div id="toc" class="toc"><div class="toctitle" dir="ltr" lang="en"><h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contents</font></h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="toctogglespan"><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox" /></span></font></div>

<ul><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#Front_group_organizing_activity"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Front group organizing activity</span></a></font></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#SourceWatch_resources"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">SourceWatch resources</span></a></font></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#External_resources"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">External resources</span></a></font></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#Contact"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Contact</span></a></font></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#References"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></font></li></ul>

</div>

<h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Front_group_organizing_activity">Front group organizing activity</span></font></h2>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EIS Solutions organized <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Environmentally_Conscious_Consumers_for_Oil_Shale" title="Environmentally Conscious Consumers for Oil Shale">Environmentally Conscious Consumers for Oil Shale</a>, a <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Front_group" class="mw-redirect" title="Front group">front group</a> for the energy industry and gas drilling interests in Colorado.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#cite_note-4">[4]</a></sup></font>

</p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was reported that former Colorado State Senator <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Josh_Penry" title="Josh Penry">Josh Penry</a>, a Republican who lost a bid to become Governor, accepted a job with EIS Solutions after the 2010 election.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#cite_note-5">[5]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=EIS_Solutions#cite_note-6">[6]</a></sup></font>

</p>

<h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="SourceWatch_resources">SourceWatch resources</span></font></h2>

<ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Josh_Penry" title="Josh Penry">Josh Penry</a></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Astroturf" title="Astroturf">Astroturf</a></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Front_groups" title="Front groups">Front groups</a></font></li></ul>

<h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="External_resources">External resources</span></font></h2>

<h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Contact">Contact</span></font></h2>

<h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span></font></h2>

<div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"><li id="cite_note-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></li></ol></div><div id="bodyContent" class="mw-body-content"><li id="cite_note-1"> <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="reference-text">The Associated Press <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=166298&catid=339">Ex-state Sen. Penry takes energy consulting job</a> 9News.com (Denver), November 28, 2010 </span></font>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></li><li id="cite_note-2"> <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="reference-text">Teeter <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.coloradopols.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=14592">AstroTurfing Media on West Slope</a> ColoradoPols.com (blog), December 5, 2010M</span></font>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></li><li id="cite_note-3"> <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="reference-text">Mike Moran <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://thebusinesstimes.com/oil-shale-experiment-continues/">Oil shale experiment continues</a>, Grand Valley <i>Business Times</i>, December 6, 2010</span></font>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></li><li id="cite_note-4"> <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="reference-text"><i>Washington Post</i>/Coloradopols.com <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/politics/blog-network/2010/12/astroturfing_media_on_west_slo.html">Astroturfing Media on the West Slope</a>, "Voices" blog, December 5, 2010</span></font>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></li><li id="cite_note-5"> <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="reference-text">Emily Anderson <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/exsenator_penry_to_accept_job/">Ex-Senator Penry to accept job in Denver</a>, Grand Junction, Colorado Daily Sentinel, November 27, 2010</span></font>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-6"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></li><div id="mw-content-text" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr" lang="en"><div class="mw-parser-output"><div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"><li id="cite_note-6" value="6"> <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="reference-text">Club Twitty <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.coloradopols.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=14548">Penry spins through revolving door</a>, Coloradopols.com (blog), November 27, 2010</span></font>

</li></ol></div>

</div></div>

<div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: </font><ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Front_groups_portal" title="Category:Front groups portal">Front groups portal</a></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Front_groups" title="Category:Front groups">Front groups</a></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Corporate_strategy" title="Category:Corporate strategy">Corporate strategy</a></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Politics(U.S.)" title="Category:Politics (U.S.)">Politics (U.S.)</a></font></li></ul></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">duck 9 22</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.eissolutions.com/who-we-are/josh-penry/" rel="noopener" target="self" data-testid="result-extras-url-link" class="Rn_JXVtoPVAFyGkcaXyK" data-handled-by-react="true"><span class="Wo6ZAEmESLNUuWBkbMxx">www.eissolutions.com</span><span class="oaxCunrdbQs3WQDCq3Ls">&nbsp;›&nbsp;who-we-are › josh-penry</span></a></font><div class="ikg2IXiCD14iVX7AdZo1"><h2 class="LnpumSThxEWMIsDdAT17 BrPN5UiFwJN5HlfRhga9 CXMyPcQ6nDv47DKFeywM"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.eissolutions.com/who-we-are/josh-penry/" rel="noopener" target="_self" class="eVNpHGjtxRBq_gLOfGDr LQNqh2U1kzYxREs65IJu" data-testid="result-title-a" data-handled-by-react="true"><span class="EKtkFWMYpwzMKOYr0GYm LQVY1Jpkk8nyJ6HBWKAk">Josh Penry - EIS Solutions</span></a></font></h2></div><div class="E2eLOJr8HctVnDOTM8fs"><div class="OgdwYG6KE2qthn9XQWFC"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>A college quarterback at Mesa State College, in 1998 <b>Penry</b>

was named the national scholar athlete of the year by the American

football coaches association - an award won the prior year by Peyton

Manning. <b>EIS</b> <b>Solutions</b> - Denver 7600 E Eastman Avenue, Suite 405 Denver, CO 80231 Phone: (720) 420-4250 <b>EIS</b> <b>Solutions</b> - Washington, D.C.</span></font></div></div><div class="nrn-react-div"><article id="r1-1" data-handled-by-react="true" data-testid="result" data-nrn="result" class="yQDlj3B5DI5YO8c8Ulio CpkrTDP54mqzpuCSn1Fa SKlplDuh9FjtDprgoMxk"><div class="OQ_6vPwNhCeusNiEDcGp"><div class="mwuQiMOjmFJ5vmN6Vcqw NvMwcsUp56q4W2Z_b8E7 hAeZQDlu0XXeGwL7U722 SgSTKoqQXa0tEszD2zWF LQVY1Jpkk8nyJ6HBWKAk"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="DpVR46dTZaePK29PDkz8"><a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=eis%20solutions%20penry+site:www.eissolutions.com&t=ffab" rel="noopener" title="Search domain eissolutions.com" data-testid="result-extras-site-search-link" data-handled-by-react="true"><img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/ip3/www.eissolutions.com.ico" width="16" height="16" /></a></span><a href="https://www.eissolutions.com/who-we-are/" rel="noopener" target="self" data-testid="result-extras-url-link" class="Rn_JXVtoPVAFyGkcaXyK" data-handled-by-react="true"><span class="Wo6ZAEmESLNUuWBkbMxx">https://www.eissolutions.com</span><span class="oaxCunrdbQs3WQDCq3Ls">&nbsp;›&nbsp;who-we-are</span></a></font></div></div><div class="ikg2IXiCD14iVX7AdZo1"><h2 class="LnpumSThxEWMIsDdAT17 CXMyPcQ6nDv47DKFeywM"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.eissolutions.com/who-we-are/" rel="noopener" target="self" class="eVNpHGjtxRBq_gLOfGDr LQNqh2U1kzYxREs65IJu" data-testid="result-title-a" data-handled-by-react="true"><span class="EKtkFWMYpwzMKOYr0GYm LQVY1Jpkk8nyJ6HBWKAk">WHO WE ARE - EIS Solutions</span></a></font></h2></div><div class="E2eLOJr8HctVnDOTM8fs"><div class="OgdwYG6KE2qthn9XQWFC"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>MEET THE TEAM Josh <b>Penry</b> Principal—Denver Since joining <b>EIS</b> <b>Solutions</b>, <b>Penry</b>

has become the go-to guy for businesses, trade groups, conservative and

good government organizations locked in tough political or public

relations fights. <b>Penry</b> has been identified by a host of national publications as prime mover in… Tim Pollard Principal—Denver</span></font></div></div><div class="FTrf7TqAcfxxEQ_3nfUg"><div class="nYs5EPJFwdhisN0E7MCB AbEGLIJuTmsLLjCjXvCN"><ul class="wAo0g6uUc98EWmmASZLv"><li id="sl-0" class="gyDT4qronqJu4BgQBq2F"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://eissolutions.com/case-study-king-ii-coal-mine/" rel="noopener" target="self" class="f3uDrYrWF3Exrfp1m3Og" data-handled-by-react="true">King II Coal Mine</a></font></li><li id="sl-1" class="gyDT4qronqJu4BgQBq2F"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://eissolutions.com/who-we-are/rich-coolidge/" rel="noopener" target="self" class="f3uDrYrWF3Exrfp1m3Og" data-handled-by-react="true">Rich Coolidge</a></font></li></ul></div></div></article></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://coloradowomenschamber.chambermaster.com/list/member/eis-solutions-16068" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw357IhICTd6_hX-h3mqHhWb" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFnoECAMQAQ">
</a></font><h3 class="LC20lb MBeuO DKV0Md"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://coloradowomenschamber.chambermaster.com/list/member/eis-solutions-16068" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw357IhICTd6_hX-h3mqHhWb" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFnoECAMQAQ">EIS Solutions | Public Relations</a></font></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre"><cite class="iUh30 qLRx3b tjvcx" role="text">http://coloradowomenschamber.chambermaster.com<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" role="text"> › list</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="TbwUpd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 qLRx3b tjvcx" role="text"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" role="text" /></cite></font></div><div class="csDOgf"><div data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Q2esEegQIAxAE"><div><div role="button" tabindex="0" class="iTPLzd GUHazd lUn2nc eY4mx" style="padding-bottom:20px;padding-right:5px;position:absolute" aria-label="About this Result"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="D6lY4c"><span class="xTFaxe IjabWd z1asCe SaPW2b" style="height:18px;line-height:18px;width:18px"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" /></span></span></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="MjjYud"><div class="g Ww4FFb vt6azd tF2Cxc" style="width:600px" data-hveid="CAUQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFSgAegQIBRAA" lang="en"><div class="kvH3mc BToiNc UK95Uc" data-sokoban-container="ih6Jnb_QJt7Gb"><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc jGGQ5e" data-header-feature="0"><div class="yuRUbf"><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="csDOgf"><div data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Q2esEegQIAxAE"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Qh-4GegQIAxAF" /></font></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc" data-content-feature="1"><div class="VwiC3b yXK7lf MUxGbd yDYNvb lyLwlc lEBKkf" style="-webkit-line-clamp:2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>Categories. Public Relations. 7600 E Eastman Avenue Suite 405 Denver CO 80231 ... Contact Us. 1630 Welton Street, Suite 1000C Denver, CO 80202. 303-458-0220.</span></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="MjjYud"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="oUAcPd" id="fld_1" /></font><div class="g Ww4FFb vt6azd tF2Cxc" style="width:600px" data-hveid="CC4QAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFSgAegQILhAA" lang="en"><div class="kvH3mc BToiNc UK95Uc" data-sokoban-container="ih6Jnb_BTrggc"><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc jGGQ5e" data-header-feature="0"><div class="yuRUbf"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://opengovco.com/business/20171352232" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw1bu5dJ4qLDd4GWF5K2Oh4f" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFnoECB0QAQ">
</a></font><h3 class="LC20lb MBeuO DKV0Md"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://opengovco.com/business/20171352232" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw1bu5dJ4qLDd4GWF5K2Oh4f" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFnoECB0QAQ">Ascent Media LLC · 7600 E Eastman Ave, Ste 405, Denver, CO ...</a></font></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre"><cite class="iUh30 qLRx3b tjvcx" role="text">https://opengovco.com<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" role="text"> › business</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="TbwUpd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 qLRx3b tjvcx" role="text"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" role="text" /></cite></font></div><div class="csDOgf"><div data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Q2esEegQIHRAE"><div><div role="button" tabindex="0" class="iTPLzd GUHazd lUn2nc eY4mx" style="padding-bottom:20px;padding-right:5px;position:absolute" aria-label="About this Result"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="D6lY4c"><span class="xTFaxe IjabWd z1asCe SaPW2b" style="height:18px;line-height:18px;width:18px"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" /></span></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="MjjYud"><div class="g Ww4FFb vt6azd tF2Cxc" style="width:600px" data-hveid="CC4QAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFSgAegQILhAA" lang="en"><div class="kvH3mc BToiNc UK95Uc" data-sokoban-container="ih6Jnb_BTrggc"><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc jGGQ5e" data-header-feature="0"><div class="yuRUbf"><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="csDOgf"><div data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Q2esEegQIHRAE"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Qh-4GegQIHRAF" /></font></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc" data-content-feature="1"><div class="VwiC3b yXK7lf MUxGbd yDYNvb lyLwlc lEBKkf" style="-webkit-line-clamp:2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>address: 7600 E Eastman Ave, Ste 405, Denver, CO 80231, US. Ascent Media LLC (Entity# 20171352232) is a business corporation registered with Colorado&nbsp;...</span></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="MjjYud"><div class="g Ww4FFb vt6azd tF2Cxc" style="width:600px" data-hveid="CC0QAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFSgAegQILRAA" lang="en"><div class="kvH3mc BToiNc UK95Uc" data-sokoban-container="ih6Jnb_ACXjle"><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc jGGQ5e" data-header-feature="0"><div class="yuRUbf"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://opengovus.com/colorado-business/20171352232" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw3LJY8OmlXOrTdI6pltE1b" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFnoECCIQAQ">
</a></font><h3 class="LC20lb MBeuO DKV0Md"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://opengovus.com/colorado-business/20171352232" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw3LJY8OmlXOrTdI6pltE1b" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFnoECCIQAQ">Ascent Media LLC · 7600 E Eastman Ave, Ste ... - OpenGovUS</a></font></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre"><cite class="iUh30 qLRx3b tjvcx" role="text">https://opengovus.com<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" role="text"> › colorado-business</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="TbwUpd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 qLRx3b tjvcx" role="text"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" role="text" /></cite></font></div><div class="csDOgf"><div data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Q2esEegQIIhAE"><div><div role="button" tabindex="0" class="iTPLzd GUHazd lUn2nc eY4mx" style="padding-bottom:20px;padding-right:5px;position:absolute" aria-label="About this Result"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="D6lY4c"><span class="xTFaxe IjabWd z1asCe SaPW2b" style="height:18px;line-height:18px;width:18px"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" /></span></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="MjjYud"><div class="g Ww4FFb vt6azd tF2Cxc" style="width:600px" data-hveid="CC0QAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFSgAegQILRAA" lang="en"><div class="kvH3mc BToiNc UK95Uc" data-sokoban-container="ih6Jnb_ACXjle"><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc jGGQ5e" data-header-feature="0"><div class="yuRUbf"><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="csDOgf"><div data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Q2esEegQIIhAE"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Qh-4GegQIIhAF" /></font></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc" data-content-feature="1"><div class="VwiC3b yXK7lf MUxGbd yDYNvb lyLwlc lEBKkf" style="-webkit-line-clamp:2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>The business address is 7600 E Eastman Ave, Ste 405, Denver, CO 80231, US. The business entity type is Limited Liability Company.</span></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="MjjYud"><div class="g Ww4FFb vt6azd tF2Cxc" style="width:600px" data-hveid="CCkQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFSgAegQIKRAA" lang="en"><div class="kvH3mc BToiNc UK95Uc" data-sokoban-container="ih6Jnb_QsJX4d"><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc jGGQ5e" data-header-feature="0"><div class="yuRUbf"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://business.aurorachamber.org/list/member/76-group-15556" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw3UOQHeA7ESQSIEN5Yl-q_u" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFnoECBwQAQ">
</a></font><h3 class="LC20lb MBeuO DKV0Md"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://business.aurorachamber.org/list/member/76-group-15556" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw3UOQHeA7ESQSIEN5Yl-q_u" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFnoECBwQAQ">76 Group | Consultants - Aurora Chamber of Commerce</a></font></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre"><cite class="iUh30 qLRx3b tjvcx" role="text">https://business.aurorachamber.org<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" role="text"> › 76-group-15556</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="TbwUpd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 qLRx3b tjvcx" role="text"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" role="text" /></cite></font></div><div class="csDOgf"><div data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Q2esEegQIHBAE"><div><div role="button" tabindex="0" class="iTPLzd GUHazd lUn2nc eY4mx" style="padding-bottom:20px;padding-right:5px;position:absolute" aria-label="About this Result"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="D6lY4c"><span class="xTFaxe IjabWd z1asCe SaPW2b" style="height:18px;line-height:18px;width:18px"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" /></span></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="MjjYud"><div class="g Ww4FFb vt6azd tF2Cxc" style="width:600px" data-hveid="CCkQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFSgAegQIKRAA" lang="en"><div class="kvH3mc BToiNc UK95Uc" data-sokoban-container="ih6Jnb_QsJX4d"><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc jGGQ5e" data-header-feature="0"><div class="yuRUbf"><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="csDOgf"><div data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Q2esEegQIHBAE"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Qh-4GegQIHBAF" /></font></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc" data-content-feature="1"><div class="VwiC3b yXK7lf MUxGbd yDYNvb lyLwlc lEBKkf" style="-webkit-line-clamp:2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>Consultants; Consultants - Management; Lobbyists; Public Relations. 76 Group. Visit Website; Request Info. 7600 E Eastman Ave. Ste 405. Denver, CO 80231.</span></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="MjjYud"><div class="g Ww4FFb vt6azd tF2Cxc" style="width:600px" data-hveid="CCMQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFSgAegQIIxAA" lang="en"><div class="kvH3mc BToiNc UK95Uc" data-sokoban-container="ih6Jnb_NU3oI"><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc jGGQ5e" data-header-feature="0"><div class="yuRUbf"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://suelos-de-madera.net/business/20201042757" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw2cxzXAD5gIu5PYGGHnGHxI" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFnoECB4QAQ">
</a></font><h3 class="LC20lb MBeuO DKV0Md"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://suelos-de-madera.net/business/20201042757" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw2cxzXAD5gIu5PYGGHnGHxI" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0QFnoECB4QAQ">local choice colorado · 7600 E Eastman Ave, Suite 405, Denver, CO ...</a></font></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre"><cite class="iUh30 qLRx3b tjvcx" role="text">https://suelos-de-madera.net<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" role="text"> › business</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="TbwUpd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 qLRx3b tjvcx" role="text"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" role="text" /></cite></font></div><div class="csDOgf"><div data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Q2esEegQIHhAE"><div><div role="button" tabindex="0" class="iTPLzd GUHazd lUn2nc eY4mx" style="padding-bottom:20px;padding-right:5px;position:absolute" aria-label="About this Result"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="D6lY4c"><span class="xTFaxe IjabWd z1asCe SaPW2b" style="height:18px;line-height:18px;width:18px"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" /></span></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc jGGQ5e" data-header-feature="0"><div class="yuRUbf"><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="csDOgf"><div data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Q2esEegQIHhAE"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span data-ved="2ahUKEwjdpN3E8KH6AhUUMH0KHRCaCi0Qh-4GegQIHhAF" /></font></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="Z26q7c UK95Uc" data-content-feature="1"><div class="VwiC3b yXK7lf MUxGbd yDYNvb lyLwlc lEBKkf" style="-webkit-line-clamp:2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>The entity status is Voluntarily Dissolved. The principal address is <em>7600 E Eastman Ave</em>, <em>Suite 405</em>, <em>Denver</em>, CO 80231.</span></font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="file:///C:/Users/patmc/Downloads/Colorado-Targeted-by-Fossil-Fuel-Industry-Disinformation-Playbook-u.pdf">file:///C:/Users/patmc/Downloads/Colorado-Targeted-by-Fossil-Fuel-Industry-Disinformation-Playbook-u.pdf</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid2"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 172.721px; font-size: 15px; transform: scaleX(1.12481);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">CONTENTS</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid5"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 212.7px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.27847);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Chapter 1 Deceiving the Public: The Disinformation Playbook</span><span style="left: 762.3px; top: 212.7px; font-size: 20px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 888.3px; top: 212.7px; font-size: 20px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">4</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid6"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid9"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 245.475px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20804);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">The Disinformation Playbook and Colorado Oil and Gas Operations</span><span style="left: 691.012px; top: 245.475px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 889.495px; top: 245.475px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">5</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid10"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid13"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 287.2px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.28756);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Chapter 2 Disinformation Tactic: The Fix</span><span style="left: 550.46px; top: 287.2px; font-size: 20px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 888.3px; top: 287.2px; font-size: 20px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">7</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid14"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid17"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 319.975px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21793);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Lobbying to Weaken Public Health and Safety Protections and Enhance Fossil Fuel Profits</span><span style="left: 879.357px; top: 319.975px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 889.512px; top: 319.975px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">8</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid18"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid21"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 349.275px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22125);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Overwhelming Public Voices to Thwart Ballot Initiatives</span><span style="left: 606.001px; top: 349.275px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 889.495px; top: 349.275px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">9</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid22"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid25"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 200px; top: 378.575px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2118);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Table 1. An Example of How Industry Spending Overwhelms Health and Safety</span><span style="left: 850.989px; top: 378.575px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.907px; top: 378.575px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">10</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid26"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid29"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 407.875px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21889);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Pitting Local Leaders Against the Health and Safety of Their Constituents</span><span style="left: 743.495px; top: 407.875px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.893px; top: 407.875px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20552);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">11</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid30"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid33"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 437.175px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21718);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Influencing Public Policy Positions from Inside and Out</span><span style="left: 597.502px; top: 437.175px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.893px; top: 437.175px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20552);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">11</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid34"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid37"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 466.375px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21539);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Using Proxy Groups to Confuse the Public and Undermine Support for Climate</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 487.367px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21588);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Accountability Lawsuits</span><span style="left: 339.601px; top: 487.367px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.893px; top: 487.367px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">12</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid38"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid41"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 529.1px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.30435);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Chapter 3 Disinformation Tactic: The Diversion</span><span style="left: 624.14px; top: 529.1px; font-size: 20px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 873.8px; top: 529.1px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.16);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">13</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid42"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid45"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 561.875px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22472);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Elevating Industry Interests Above Community Voices</span><span style="left: 588.546px; top: 561.875px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.893px; top: 561.875px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">13</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid46"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid49"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 591.175px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21986);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Fabricating the Appearance of Local Support</span><span style="left: 508.924px; top: 591.175px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 591.175px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">14</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid50"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid53"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 200px; top: 620.475px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20676);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Figure 1. Colorado’s Climate Disinformation Complex</span><span style="left: 642.53px; top: 620.475px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.907px; top: 620.475px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">15</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid54"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid57"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 649.775px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22647);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Greenwashing Your Screens</span><span style="left: 372.816px; top: 649.775px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.893px; top: 649.775px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">16</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid58"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid61"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 691.5px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.2936);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Chapter 4 Disinformation Tactic: The Screen</span><span style="left: 588.34px; top: 691.5px; font-size: 20px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 873.8px; top: 691.5px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.16);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">18</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid62"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid65"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 724.175px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22558);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Building Credibility by Hiding Behind Trusted State Institutions</span><span style="left: 668.269px; top: 724.175px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 724.175px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">18</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid66"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid69"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 753.475px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23045);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Burnishing Industry’s Reputation through Association with Respected Nonprofits</span><span style="left: 811.483px; top: 753.475px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 753.475px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">19</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid70"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid73"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 795.2px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.29147);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Chapter 5 Disinformation Tactic: The Fake</span><span style="left: 567.5px; top: 795.2px; font-size: 20px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 873.8px; top: 795.2px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.16);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">21</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid74"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid77"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 840.4px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.26724);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Chapter 6 A Litany of Harms: Health and Safety</span><span style="left: 615.12px; top: 840.4px; font-size: 20px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 873.8px; top: 840.4px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.16);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">23</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid78"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid81"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 873.175px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22274);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Cancer-Causing and Other Dangerous Chemicals in the Air and Water</span><span style="left: 714.326px; top: 873.175px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.893px; top: 873.175px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">24</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid82"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid85"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 902.475px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19271);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Poor Air Quality</span><span style="left: 274.381px; top: 902.475px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.893px; top: 902.475px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">24</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid86"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid89"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 931.775px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2167);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">New Research Identifies Even More Dangerous Ozone Problems</span><span style="left: 669.434px; top: 931.775px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 931.775px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">25</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid90"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid93"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 200px; top: 960.975px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21476);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Figure 2. Fossil Fuel Industry Emissions are Higher in High Racial-Minority Census</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 200px; top: 981.984px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.29027);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Tracts</span><span style="left: 253.116px; top: 981.984px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.907px; top: 981.984px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">26</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid94"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid97"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 1011.28px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22834);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Dangerous Inactive Wells</span><span style="left: 351.931px; top: 1011.28px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 1011.28px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">26</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid98"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid101"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 1040.58px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2226);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Climate Change Impacts</span><span style="left: 342.41px; top: 1040.58px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 1040.58px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">27</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid102"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid105"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1082.3px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.25785);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Chapter 7 A Litany of Harms: Economic</span><span style="left: 533.22px; top: 1082.3px; font-size: 20px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 873.8px; top: 1082.3px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.16);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">28</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid106"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid109"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 1115.08px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21409);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Bogus Complaints about High Taxes</span><span style="left: 438.812px; top: 1115.08px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.893px; top: 1115.08px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">28</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid110"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid113"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 140.4px; top: 1144.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22938);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Inflated Jobs Claims</span><span style="left: 309.312px; top: 1144.38px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 1144.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">28</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid113"><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 1144.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid113"><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 1144.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">...</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page13R_mcid11"><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 662.666px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22939);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> Colorado, the oil and gas industry is comprised of powerful transnational corporations,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 684.46px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21431);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">including ExxonMobil and Chevron, along with companies such as Noble Energy (now owned</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 706.354px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21467);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">by Chevron), Anadarko (now owned by Occidental Petroleum), and Suncor (a large Canadian</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 728.147px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21993);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">tar-sands operation with close ties to ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell). The industry’s</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 749.941px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22925);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">interests are represented by heavyweight national lobbying outfits like the American</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 771.834px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21398);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Petroleum Institute (API), as well as local trade associations, like the Colorado Oil and Gas</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 793.628px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2135);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Association (COGA). A proliferation of industry-created and backed front groups includes</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 815.421px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23097);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">several with ties to the private multinational conglomerate Koch Industries. They often all</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 837.415px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2275);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">work together to run the same Disinformation Playbook.</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page13R_mcid12" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page13R_mcid12"><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 879.115px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21909);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Of course, the fossil fuel industry uses similar tactics and wields considerable political clout in</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 900.909px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2217);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">other oil- and gas-producing states and at the federal level. Consider its success in stalling any</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 922.802px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22179);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">meaningful climate action for more than two decades and its ability to despoil public and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 944.596px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21882);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Native lands and waters with drilling and pipelines. Or consider the API’s nationwide TV and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 966.389px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21635);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">digital ad campaign, launched ahead of the 2020 elections and targeting not only Colorado,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 988.283px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21627);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and other key oil- and gas-producing states but also Wisconsin,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 1010.18px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19914);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Michigan, and other political swing states (API 2020a; API 2020....</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page13R_mcid12"><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 1010.18px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19914);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page13R_mcid12"><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 1010.18px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19914);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">[firestone explosion led to bill?]</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page13R_mcid12"><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 1010.18px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19914);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page13R_mcid12"><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 1010.18px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19914);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">...</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page22R_mcid11"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 931.7px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.29398);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Overwhelming Public Voices to Thwart Ballot Initiatives</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page22R_mcid12" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page22R_mcid12"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 976.975px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20964);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page22R_mcid12"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 976.975px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20964);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">In 2016, aggressive campaigns by Protect Colorado and Coloradans for Responsible Energy</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 998.769px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19584);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Development (CRED)—front groups funded by API, CPC, Noble Energy, and Occidental</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1020.56px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22667);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Petroleum—prevented two grassroots-driven ballot measures from getting in front of voters</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1042.46px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21065);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">(Dyer 2016a). One measure would have increased local control over oil and gas expansion,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1064.25px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22697);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">with the aim of putting science at the forefront of decision-making on siting, reporting, and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1086.04px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23722);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">safety requirements designed to protect the communities. The other measure would have</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1107.94px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21816);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">improved community health and safety by requiring fracking operations be set back 2,500 feet</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1129.73px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22502);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">from any occupied structure (homes, schools, businesses) or “areas of concern” (drinking</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1151.52px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21652);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">water sources, lakes, parks). The current scientific consensus is that a setback of 2,000 to 2,500</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1173.42px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22916);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">feet is needed to protect health and safety, especially that of children (Lewis, Greiner, an....</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page25R_mcid67"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 761.975px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21675);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">rotect Colorado repeated the play again two years later, in 2018, spending almost $40 million</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 783.869px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21954);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">to oppose Proposition 112 (Sirota and Woodruff 2018b), which would have required new oil</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 805.662px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21834);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">and gas development projects to be set back 2,500 feet from occupied buildings and other areas</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 827.456px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21867);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">of concern. In addition to donating millions of dollars to Protect Colorado PAC to oppose</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 849.349px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21676);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Proposition 112, Noble Energy directly funded spots on at least 12 TV stations in the month</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 871.143px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21313);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">before the election (Sirota and Woodruff 2018b). One ad explicitly told voters: “When you</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 892.936px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22884);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">vote, we need your support to stop Proposition 112, so we can continue producing the natural</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 914.83px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22084);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">gas and oil that power our daily lives.” This ad ignored the initiative’s health and safety intent,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 936.624px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23388);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">instead advancing a bogus economic argument that stronger protective measures would put</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 958.517px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22244);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">the industry out of business (Sirota and Woodruff 2018a).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page25R_mcid68" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page25R_mcid68"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1000.32px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22242);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">In 2020, the industry poured money into ad campaigns even with no initiatives on the ballot or</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1022.11px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22741);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">legislation in the works. Protect Colorado spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1043.9px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21168);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">statewide online and TV ad campaign aimed at Governor Polis and the COGCC, threatening to</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1065.8px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23168);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">challenge any new regulations, particularly on siting setbacks, that the industry deemed</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1087.59px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22011);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">unreasonable (Bunch 2020). The industry promoted 500-foot setbacks—about one-fourth the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1109.39px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23094);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">distance that scientists say is best to protect communities, especially vulnerable populations</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1131.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19598);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">(Lewis, Greiner, and Brown 2018; Milton et al. 2014)....</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page25R_mcid68"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1131.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19598);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid2"><span style="left: 160.082px; top: 124.131px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="left: 182.393px; top: 124.275px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21062);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Josh Penry served in the Colorado General Assembly for six years, first as a member of</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 182.393px; top: 146.069px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22569);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">the Colorado House and then as Republican party leader in the Senate. He</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 182.393px; top: 167.962px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2252);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">subsequently became a lobbyist and consultant for the oil and gas industry. He founded</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 182.393px; top: 189.756px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22036);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">the company EIS Solutions (recently renamed 76 Group) to help defeat various anti-</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 182.393px; top: 211.549px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22891);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">fracking measures and is deeply involved with various front groups that promote the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 182.393px; top: 233.443px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2152);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">oil and gas industry in the state (as is his wife, Kristin Strohm—read more under The</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 182.393px; top: 255.337px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.18117);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Screen) (Bunch 2021; Dyer 2015; Dyer 2016b; EIS Solutions, n.d.b</span><span style="left: 717.465px; top: 255.337px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span></span><span style="left: 721.202px; top: 255.337px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.18238);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">; 76 Group, n.d.)</span>.</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid5"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 307px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.28423);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 307px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.28423);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 307px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.28423);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Using Proxy Groups to Confuse the Public and Undermine Support for</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 332.2px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.2856);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Climate Accountability Lawsuits</span></span></b><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid6" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 377.475px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.206);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 377.475px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.206);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">In 2018, Boulder and San Miguel counties and the city of Boulder sued ExxonMobil and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 399.269px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22597);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Suncor, arguing that the companies violated state law by deceiving the public about the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 421.062px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22937);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">dangers of their fossil fuel products. These local governments are demanding that the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 442.956px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22744);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">companies pay their fair share of remediating climate damages accruing in their communities</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 464.749px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21269);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">(Boulder County, n.d.; City of Boulder, n.d.; EarthRights International, n.d.; San Miguel</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 486.643px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22771);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">County, n.d.).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid7" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid7"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 528.443px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21817);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid7"><b><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 528.443px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21817);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Almost immediately, ExxonMobil and Suncor launched a counteroffensive, using proxy</span><br role="presentation" /></b><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 550.237px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22565);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><b>groups to distort the public’s understanding of the case.</b> The defendants, falsely suggesting</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 572.03px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21961);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">that the local governments were seeking a back-door path to achieve legislative goals,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 593.924px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.24411);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">attempted to redirect attention away from the on-the-ground reality that communities face</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 615.717px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2276);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">budget-busting expenses due to climate change-related fires, flooding, bad air quality, and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 637.511px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23304);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">extreme heat. Industry PR companies, particularly Western Wire (an ExxonMobil executive</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 659.404px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23401);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">serves on its board of directors) and Energy In Depth (a project of the Independent Petroleum</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 681.198px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22154);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Association of America), ramped up their substantial media buys to discredit the legal strategy</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 702.991px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23861);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">(EarthRights International 2018). Industry groups also attacked and attempted to discredit a</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 724.885px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20602);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">public forum at the University of Colorado Law School on holding fossil fuel companies liable</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 746.679px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19795);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">for climate change harms in the state (MAP 2019; University of Colorado Law School 2019).</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 768.472px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.24258);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Further, their representatives posed as journalists to try to interview plaintiff’s attorneys</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 790.366px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2373);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">outside of appropriate court channels (EarthRights International 2018; EarthRights</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 812.159px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.238);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">International 2019). For more than three years, the defendants have used procedural tactics to</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 833.953px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2154);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">keep this case—like other recent climate accountability complaints against fossil fuel</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 855.947px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2112);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">companies—from being considered on its merit</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid7"><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 855.947px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2112);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">...</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid8"><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 560.669px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22021);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">In an infamous 1969 memorandum, a tobacco executive captured the Diversion tactic well:</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 582.462px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2123);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">“Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 604.356px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21982);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">in the minds of the general public” (Mulvey and Shulman 2015). To create doubt, undermine</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 626.15px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21974);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">science, influence public opinion, and gain access to policymakers while maintaining the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 647.943px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21761);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">illusion of independence, fossil fuel companies in Colorado have deployed trade associations,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 669.837px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23073);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">front groups with innocuous-sounding names, and “greenwashing” advertising campaigns that</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 691.63px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22128);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">paint oil and gas as sources of clean energy and central to climate solutions. Corporate</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 713.424px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23436);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">interests even create, fund, and control so-called “astroturf” groups that falsely portray</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 735.418px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22903);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">themselves as grassroots.</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid9" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid9"><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 777.118px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21373);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid9"><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 777.118px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21373);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">To rig the system in its favor, Colorado’s fossil fuel industry uses “The Diversion” to exert</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.384px; top: 798.911px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22526);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">political power over crucial legislative, regulatory, and grassroots-led initiatives, commonly</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.367px; top: 820.905px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20477);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">engaging in a variety of activities, including:</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid12"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 152.377px; top: 862.561px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">•</span><span style="left: 160.059px; top: 862.561px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 182.37px; top: 862.705px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22199);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Elevating industry interests above community voices;</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid16"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 152.377px; top: 904.361px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">•</span><span style="left: 160.059px; top: 904.361px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 182.37px; top: 904.505px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23041);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Fabricating the appearance of local support; and</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid20"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 152.377px; top: 946.261px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">•</span><span style="left: 160.059px; top: 946.261px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 182.37px; top: 946.405px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22995);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Greenwashing your screens.</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid20"><span style="left: 182.37px; top: 946.405px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22995);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid20"><span style="left: 182.37px; top: 946.405px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22995);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid23" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid23"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 998.1px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.30104);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Elevating Industry Interests Above Community Voices</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid24" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid24"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1043.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22057);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid24"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1043.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22057);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">At least three oil and gas industry trade associations operate aggressively in Colorado: the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1065.17px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22229);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">American Petroleum Institute, the Colorado Petroleum Council (the API’s local affiliate), and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1086.96px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20566);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. Also active are the Colorado Petroleum Association, the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1108.86px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22159);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Western Energy Alliance, the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), and the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1130.65px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21592);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">CO-WYO Petroleum Marketers Association. Wielding its wealth and political power, the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1152.44px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2202);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">industry is able to supercharge its advocacy and drown out community voices. Sometimes</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1174.34px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22306);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">visibly and sometimes behind the scenes, these trade associations engage in extensive</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid24"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1174.34px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22306);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[<span class="markedContent"><span style="left: 398px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px; transform: scaleX(1.22237);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Union of Concerned Scientists</span><span style="left: 585.125px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 594.4px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">|</span><span style="left: 598.025px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 607.4px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px; transform: scaleX(1.164);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">14</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid0" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid0"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 124.275px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22347);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid0"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 124.275px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22347);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">legislative and regulatory lobbying and pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 146.069px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21395);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">to sway public opinion, especially investing in large-scale TV, radio, and social-media</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 168.062px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2402);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">advertising.</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid1" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid1"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 209.762px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23048);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid1"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 209.762px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23048);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Fossil fuel trade associations use their clout to spread disinformation. For example, their</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 231.556px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22784);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">lobbyists routinely exaggerate the industry’s economic benefits while downplaying the health</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 253.45px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21972);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">and safety risks to community members. In 2017 testimony to a state Senate committee</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 275.243px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22255);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">hearing on the proposed legislation on setbacks from school properties, COGA’s president</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 297.037px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23028);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">claimed that protective setback extensions would undermine oil and gas as “the cornerstone of</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 318.93px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22026);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">prosperity” in the state (Glick and Ray 2017). The industry has peddled that exaggeration for</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 340.724px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22286);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">years, even though the oil and gas sector is a notoriously unstable, “boom and bust” enterprise</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 362.517px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21675);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">that accounts for roughly 1 percent of Colorado jobs. At the same time, it offloads onto the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 384.411px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23429);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">state and its communities innumerable externalities, such as air pollution, fouled waters, and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 406.305px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.17757);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">abandoned mines (PwC 2017; API 2017; BEA, n.d.b).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid2" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid2"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 448.005px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23128);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid2"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 448.005px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23128);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">The industry also downplays, even denies, the health risks from contaminants released during</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 469.898px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21478);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">oil and gas exploration and extraction. During the 2017 setback hearing, CPC’s executive</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 491.692px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23486);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">director told the press that the idea of protecting school children “was based on the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 513.485px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2183);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">presumption that being near oil and gas facilities is dangerous,” adding that CPC “absolutely</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 535.379px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21567);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">rejects that notion” (Glick and Ray 2017). Yet current oil and gas production releases a host of</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 557.172px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23055);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">dangerous chemicals into the air and water—including those that cause cancer and disrupt the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 578.966px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21823);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">endocrine system—and it creates significant noise and light pollution. Science shows that</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 600.86px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22316);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">children are particularly sensitive to those dangerous chemicals (Bushkin-Bedient et al. 2020,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 622.753px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16575);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">60, 86; Glick and Ray 2017, McKenzie et al. 2017).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid3" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid3"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 664.453px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19882);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid3"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 664.453px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19882);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">An API TV ad opposing a 2019 package of oil and gas reforms in the legislature is another</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 686.347px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23233);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">example of how industry advertising spreads falsehoods and misrepresentations. The ad</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 708.14px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21889);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">claimed that the measures would “shut down energy production in Colorado”—a claim with no</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 729.934px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21159);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">economic basis (API 2019). The ad suggested that lawmakers, acting in bad faith, had snuck</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 751.828px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22733);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">the bill out of committee “in the middle of the night.” In reality, the relevant committee voted</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 773.621px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.222);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">at 2:00 a.m. only after hearing more than 12 hours of testimony from both supporters and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 795.515px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22753);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">opponents (Woodruff 2019).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid4" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid4"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 847.4px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.29394);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid4"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 847.4px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.29394);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Fabricating the Appearance of Local Support</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid5" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 892.575px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22193);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 892.575px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22193);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">A plethora of oil and gas industry front groups litters the political landscape in Colorado, often</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 914.469px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22617);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">with ambiguous or purposely confusing names, sometimes using dirty-trick tactics, and rarely</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 936.262px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21742);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">disclosing ties to the industry (Yowell 2018). To conceal its lobbying activities, the industry</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 958.056px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23672);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">hides behind astroturf organizations, created to falsely appear as grassroots in their opposition</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 980.05px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21285);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">to forward-looking climate and energy policy ( see Figure 1) nice graphic]</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 980.05px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21285);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page37R_mcid17"><span style="left: 120px; top: 800.075px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21278);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">n 2019, the industry ran an aggressive and misleading campaign in opposition to Senate Bill</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 120px; top: 821.869px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21276);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">181. In addition to TV and radio ads, it invested in social-media advertising. Using the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 120px; top: 843.762px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22315);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Facebook Ad Library, an investigative reporter identified “dozens of sponsored posts from</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 120px; top: 865.556px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19949);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">astroturf groups like ‘Energy Citizens’ and ‘Energy Nation’ opposing SB181,” paid for with tens</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 120px; top: 887.349px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22129);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">of thousands of dollars from the API. The ads recorded millions of impressions (Woodruff</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 120px; top: 909.343px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16328);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">2019; Davies 2011).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page37R_mcid18" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page37R_mcid18"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 951.075px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22345);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page37R_mcid18"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 951.075px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22345);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Perhaps the most ubiquitous of the front groups is Coloradoans for Responsible Energy</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 972.869px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22115);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Development. Created and generously funded by Anadarko Petroleum and Noble Energy,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 994.762px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21382);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">CRED describes itself as an educational organization, yet it engages deeply in overt political</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1016.56px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22544);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">activities. Mark Truax, in his presentation to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1038.35px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20759);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">in 2015, described these activities. As CRED’s director of operations and coalitions, he also</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1060.24px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22648);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">boasted about the vast amount of money the organization invested in those activities (Dyer</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1082.14px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16075);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">2016a; Glick and Ray 2016).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page37R_mcid19" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page37R_mcid19"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1123.84px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.24498);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page37R_mcid19"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1123.84px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.24498);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">The trade associations and front groups create astroturf groups that are industry-funded and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1145.73px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22461);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">led by industry representatives and political operatives. CRED created its political arm,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1167.52px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22986);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Protect Colorado, for the purpose of defeating grassroots-led anti-fracking ballot initiatives</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page37R_mcid19"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1167.52px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22986);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent"><span style="left: 398px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px; transform: scaleX(1.22237);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Union of Concerned Scientists</span><span style="left: 585.125px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 594.4px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">|</span><span style="left: 598.025px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 607.4px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px; transform: scaleX(1.164);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">16</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid0"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 124.275px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21972);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">(Protect Colorado, n.d.). For example, to defeat the 2016 setback and local control initiatives,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 146.069px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2164);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Protect Colorado initiated a “decline to sign” campaign, discouraging Coloradans from signing</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 167.962px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22919);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">a petition to get the initiatives on the ballot; it used various grassroots organizing techniques</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 189.756px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20743);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">funded with nearly $17 million by CRED, Anadarko Petroleum, Noble Energy, and several</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 211.549px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19303);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">other oil and gas companies (Blake 2016; Claypool 2016). As tracked by Public Citizen, “The</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 233.443px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23331);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">widest disparity between spending by corporate-backed groups and their mostly non-</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 255.236px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21837);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">corporate opposition was found in the race for Colorado’s Mandatory Setback from Oil and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 277.13px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19565);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Gas Development Amendment” (Claypool 2016).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid1" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid1"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 318.93px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21487);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid1"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 318.93px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21487);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Also as part of 2016 efforts to keep setback and local-control initiatives off the statewide ballot,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 340.724px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20155);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Protect Colorado hired people to carry signs saying “decline to sign #75 and #78” (Evans 2016;</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 362.517px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19557);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Glick and Ray 2016; KGNU 2016). Protect Colorado was similarly behind efforts to harass</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 384.411px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2343);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">signature gatherers and petition signers. Protesters followed a Denver mom out gathering</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 406.204px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21377);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">signatures, screaming in her face, “You’re taking our jobs!” No one answered when she asked</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 428.098px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21674);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">her harassers questions about the “jobs” they had in the industry (Glick and Ray 2016).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid2"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 469.898px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23291);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">These dirty tricks continued and even expanded in 2018. The industry again hired protesters</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 491.692px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2386);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">who followed petition-signature gatherers, sometimes harassing and threatening them, in an</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 513.485px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21874);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">effort to keep the setback initiative off the ballot (Yowell, 2018). <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">An undisclosed pro-industry</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 535.379px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2349);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">group paid a signature-gathering firm to stop its work on the initiative; the contractor</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 557.172px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22754);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">admitted on tape to initiative organizers: “Nobody threatened me. You know what they’re</span><br role="presentation" /></span><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 578.966px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20901);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">doing. They’re going around and buying people” </span>(Olabi 2018). The industry also created new</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 600.86px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23682);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">astroturf organizations with names strikingly similar to those of initiative supporters,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 622.753px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22301);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">apparently attempting to confuse voters about who was behind the campaigns (Yowell 2018).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid3" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid3"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 674.5px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.29769);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid3"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 674.5px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.29769);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Greenwashing Your Screens</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid4" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid4"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 719.775px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22582);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid4"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 719.775px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22582);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Fossil fuel trade and front groups in Colorado have spread deceptive and greenwashing</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 741.569px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21749);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">messages through social-media advertisements, spending well over a million dollars since 2018</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 763.462px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21286);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">on Facebook alone. The two most prolific social-media greenwashers have been CRED and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 785.356px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23571);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Protect Colorado.</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid5" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 827.056px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20016);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 827.056px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20016);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">CRED, COGA, and others have funded misleading ads painting oil and gas as clean energy and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 848.95px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21769);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">central to climate solutions. Messages like “Fracking Supports our Environment,” “Colorado’s</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 870.743px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2122);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">oil and natural gas industry works to provide clean energy,” and “Clean Colorado Oil and Gas</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 892.537px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21229);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">is all around you” grace images and videos of nature scenes, as though dirty fossil fuels were</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 914.43px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20852);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">not destroying our climate and those very ecosystems. An April 2021 CRED advertisement</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 936.224px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20879);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">invoked climate change directly: “The climate is changing. And Colorado’s oil and natural gas</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 958.017px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22691);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">industry is part of the solution.” In fact, US Energy Information Administration data show that</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 979.911px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22742);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">both oil and fossil gas are even larger contributors to energy-related carbon dioxide emissions</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1001.7px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21839);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">than is coal (EIA 2021). And the transportation sector, because of its dependence on oil,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1023.5px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21081);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">accounts for the nation’s largest share of carbon emissions (EIA 2021). Advertising fracking as</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1045.39px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20492);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">environmentally safe and fossil fuels as clean energy is deeply deceptive—it is insidious</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 1067.29px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23926);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">greenwashing.</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid6" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 1108.99px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.224);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 1108.99px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.224);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">The ads go to great lengths to highlight the positive contributions fossil fuels make to the state,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 1130.88px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21526);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">leaving out the damage and harm that comes from the industry’s operations. COGA ads</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 1152.67px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21827);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">regularly celebrate oil and gas that is “fueling our freedom” and “fueling our summer fun” but</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 1174.47px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23237);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">ignore the pollution that forces Coloradans to stay inside to protect themselves from extreme</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 1174.47px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23237);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">...</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent"><span style="left: 398px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px; transform: scaleX(1.22237);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Union of Concerned Scientists</span><span style="left: 585.125px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 594.4px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">|</span><span style="left: 598.025px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 607.4px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px; transform: scaleX(1.164);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">18</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid0"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 128.7px; font-size: 40px; transform: scaleX(1.30188);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Chapter 4</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 176.98px; font-size: 40px; transform: scaleX(1.29791);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Disinformation Tactic: The Screen</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid1"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid3"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid5"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid8" /></span></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid8"><span style="left: 284.5px; top: 490.375px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.18718);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid8"><span style="left: 284.5px; top: 490.375px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.18718);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Buy credibility through alliances, such as with academia,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 239.293px; top: 512.269px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19429);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">professional societies, or trusted local organizations and messengers</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid9" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid9"><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 553.969px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22743);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid9"><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 553.969px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22743);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">To improve their public images, individual companies and whole industries often forge strong</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 575.862px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.24915);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">financial or partnership-type connections with university research departments, respected</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 597.656px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23541);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">think tanks, and even well-known nonprofit organizations. Transparency and scientific</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 619.449px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2254);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">independence are crucial to the legitimacy of any such relationships, with full disclosure of the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 641.343px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21393);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">financial ties critical to assessing the objectivity of scientific literature and claims of fact. As</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 663.137px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21548);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">UCS research shows, Colorado fossil fuel companies have exploited state-based alliances to</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 684.93px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23971);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">influence research and policy and spread disinformation that serves corporate interests while</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 706.924px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23907);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">undermining public health and safety.</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid10"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 748.624px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21415);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">To rig the system in its favor in Colorado, the fossil fuel industry uses “The Screen,” including</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.393px; top: 770.518px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21669);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">such activities as:</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid13"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 152.403px; top: 812.274px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">•</span><span style="left: 160.085px; top: 812.274px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 182.396px; top: 812.418px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23121);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Building credibility by hiding behind trusted state institutions; and</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid17"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 152.403px; top: 854.074px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">•</span><span style="left: 160.085px; top: 854.074px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 182.396px; top: 854.218px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.24317);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Burnishing industry’s reputation through association with respected nonprofits.</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid20"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 905.9px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.29803);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Building Credibility by Hiding Behind Trusted State Institutions</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid21"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 951.175px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22783);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Some front groups claim to be impartial think tanks, yet their reports and analyses</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 972.969px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22667);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">conveniently find themselves in the hands of oil and gas industry promoters just when they</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 994.862px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20606);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">can make a difference. For example, the Common Sense Policy Roundtable (CSPR), a powerful</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1016.66px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22458);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">front group for the oil and gas industry, exerts significant influence over economic modeling</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1038.45px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21107);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">and reports from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder (Dyer</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1060.34px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21114);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">2016b). Heading CSPR, now renamed the Common Sense Institute, is Kristin Strohm, who is</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1082.24px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21159);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">married to Josh Penry—see The Fix (Common Sense Institute 2019).</span></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid22"><br role="presentation" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1123.94px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20162);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">In 2013, CSPR purchased a license to use a powerful economic model called REMI (Regional</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1145.83px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22184);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Economic Models Inc). Publicly partnering with two Colorado economic development</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1167.62px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2342);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">organizations but privately exercising control over the partnership, CSPR approached the</span></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid22"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1167.62px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2342);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid0"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 124.275px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21998);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Leeds School with a proposed agreement:</span> Leeds would run the REMI model and produce</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 146.069px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.24191);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">reports for those organizations. In return, the university could use the model for other</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 167.962px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.18869);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">purposes (CSPRF and Leeds School 2013). All this is made clear in over 2,000 pages of</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 189.756px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22618);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">documents obtained by a joint Greenpeace-</span><span style="left: 477.993px; top: 189.756px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.15761);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Boulder Weekly</span><span style="left: 603.762px; top: 189.756px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 607.986px; top: 189.756px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23704);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">request under the Colorado Open</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 211.649px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22666);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Records Act and reported in</span><span style="left: 353.523px; top: 211.649px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 357.686px; top: 211.649px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20596);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">HuffPost</span><span style="left: 430.094px; top: 211.649px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 434.289px; top: 211.649px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.26117);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">and the</span><span style="left: 495.745px; top: 211.649px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 499.987px; top: 211.649px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.15576);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Boulder Weekly</span><span style="left: 625.589px; top: 211.649px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">.</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid1" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid1"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 253.45px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21518);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid1"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 253.45px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21518);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">As those documents reveal, the Leeds School coordinates closely with oil and gas front groups</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 275.243px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22086);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">without publicly disclosing the full nature of that collaboration (Lewandowski 2014). This</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 297.037px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22311);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">provides a sheen of credibility for the industry’s health, safety, and economic claims. However,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 318.93px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22938);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">according to the documents obtained by Greenpeace and</span><span style="left: 587.363px; top: 318.93px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 591.503px; top: 318.93px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.15578);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Boulder Weekly</span><span style="left: 717.104px; top: 318.93px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19738);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">, CSPR selected the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 340.724px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23096);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">members of the collaboration’s management committee, actively edited report text,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 362.517px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23757);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">determined which reports would be publicly released, and had ultimate authority over this</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 384.411px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23571);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">contract. Moreover, Leeds leadership, despite protestations to the contrary, was fully aware of</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 406.305px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.18585);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">CSPR’s decisionmaking authority (Coleman 2017; Dyer 2015; Dyer 2016b).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid2" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid2"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 448.105px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21835);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid2"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 448.105px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21835);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">As reported by Jesse Coleman, then-investigative researcher for Greenpeace USA:</span></span></b><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid3"><b><br role="presentation" /></b><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 489.905px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21018);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><b>One such study was the 2014 [Leeds] Fracking Ban Report</b>. The report,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 511.698px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22506);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">published during a major political storm regarding local control over fracking,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 533.492px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22629);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">found that allowing affected communities to hold some regulatory power over</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 555.386px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21307);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">fracking would hurt Colorado’s economy—a position favored by the industry.</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 577.179px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21725);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">The report, paid for by CSPR, did not mention the group’s financial ties to the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 598.973px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22692);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">fracking industry.<b> The study’s release was strategically planned by Starboard</b></span><b><br role="presentation" /></b><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 620.866px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20982);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><b>Group and EIS Solutions,</b> two influential PR firms with oil and gas clients. The</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 642.66px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21104);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">firms used the report as a mobilization tool for Vital for Colorado, CRED, and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 664.453px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23982);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">other anti-regulatory front groups, which share board members and staff with</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 686.347px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22072);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">CSPR. Kristin Strohm, managing partner of Starboard Group, coordinated</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 708.14px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22257);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">fracking industry PR and media departments to promote the study. CSPR’s own</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 729.934px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23935);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">literature claims the study had a profound impact, boasting that the report was</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 180.015px; top: 751.928px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20801);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">“cited in all debates” on fracking ballot initiatives (Coleman 2015).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid4" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid4"><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 793.628px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20548);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid4"><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 793.628px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20548);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">In 2015, CSPR was at it again. A Leeds School report projected drastic economic harm from a</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 815.421px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22414);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">proposed 2,500-foot protective buffer zone between oil and gas operations and public</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 837.315px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20707);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">buildings (BRD 2016). Some of the report’s assumptions and conclusions were highly</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 859.108px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22356);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">debatable (Dyer 2016b). Most important, the report failed to meet a basic standard of</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 880.902px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23261);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">transparency: nowhere did it disclose that the oil and gas industry controlled and paid for</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 902.796px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20471);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">CSPR, the sponsor of the analysis (BRD 2016). Like other Leeds economic reports that</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 924.589px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21779);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">contained analyses favorable to oil and gas industry positions and messaging, the school</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 946.383px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22694);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">released the report in time to influence voters. It was heavily promoted by anti-78 groups in</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 968.377px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21084);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">radio, TV, and digital media and cited by many state politicians (Dyer 2016b).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid5" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1020.2px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.3046);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1020.2px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.3046);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Burnishing Industry’s Reputation through Association with Respected</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1045.4px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.33076);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Nonprofits</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid6" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1090.58px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22321);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1090.58px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22321);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">The oil and gas industry seeks to mislead Coloradans into believing that the public supports an</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1112.47px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22781);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">expansion of drilling and fracking. It uses well-known and trusted organizations, such as</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1134.26px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2277);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">hunting and fishing groups, to amplify the message that increased, relatively unfettered oil and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1156.06px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22344);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">gas activities are good for the state, especially its economy. These recognized and respected</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1178.05px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22674);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">organizations lend the industry a cover of legitimacy.</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1178.05px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22674);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent"><span style="left: 398px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px; transform: scaleX(1.22237);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Union of Concerned Scientists</span><span style="left: 585.125px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 594.4px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr">|</span><span style="left: 598.025px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 607.4px; top: 1270.93px; font-size: 12.5px; transform: scaleX(1.164);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">20</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid0"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 124.275px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2176);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">CRED especially uses its relationship with local organizations to be visible to their members,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 146.069px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22765);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">then it mobilizes those members to oppose public health and safety measures. In his</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 167.962px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22653);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">presentation to oil and gas industry representatives, CRED’s Truax described how this is done.</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 189.756px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21123);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Talking about targeting CRED’s digital ads for the “right folks,” he showed his audience a slide</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 211.649px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.25062);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">and exhorted them:</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid1" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid1"><span style="left: 179.998px; top: 253.45px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2138);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid1"><span style="left: 179.998px; top: 253.45px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2138);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">[Look at] the one [ad] in the back there . . . really focused on hunters and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 179.998px; top: 275.243px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22926);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">anglers. And there are hundreds of thousands of folks in Colorado that either</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 179.998px; top: 297.037px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21199);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">have a hunting license or a fishing license and they turn out to vote. . . . So when</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 179.998px; top: 318.93px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2081);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">you tell them in Colorado $82 million in severance tax went to . . . the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 179.998px; top: 340.724px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22688);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Department of Natural Resources and go[es] into wildlife restoration and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 179.998px; top: 362.617px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.215);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">habitat restoration, maybe the oil and gas industry isn’t so bad (Dyer 2016a).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid2"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 404.418px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22937);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Truax characteristically failed to mention the damage oil and gas operations exact on the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 426.211px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23795);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">state’s natural resources, while greatly exaggerating the industry’s contributions to protecting</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 448.105px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23958);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">and restoring wildlife habitat of interest to hunters and anglers.</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid3"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 490.005px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21986);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Truax then boasted about CRED’s coalition-building prowess:</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid4" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid4"><span style="left: 179.982px; top: 531.705px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19371);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid4"><span style="left: 179.982px; top: 531.705px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19371);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">This is what I like to call my NASCAR slide, all our different organizations. . . .</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 179.982px; top: 553.498px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22234);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">and you can see this is farm bureaus, the chambers of commerce, the county</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 179.982px; top: 575.392px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23862);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">organizations, the cattlemen’s groups, other business entities, Pheasants</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 179.982px; top: 597.186px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21894);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Forever, sportsman’s groups. All of these groups come together and say</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 179.982px; top: 618.979px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22227);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Colorado and the oil and gas industry here in the state is absolutely vital for our</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 179.982px; top: 640.973px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20478);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">existence (Dyer 2016a).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid5"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 682.673px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22715);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">CRED and Vital for Colorado, another industry-created and backed group, recruit members to</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 704.466px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2159);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">this coalition using Vital’s seven-principle pledge (EIS Solutions, n.d.a), which oversells the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 726.36px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22006);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">industry’s economic importance to the state, glosses over its many safety violations and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 748.154px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23005);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">dangers, suggests the coalition supports reasonable regulation when in fact it has opposed</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 769.947px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23025);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">almost all proposed restraints, and excludes any mention of serious, industry-caused, public</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 791.841px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22376);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">health concerns. CRED and Vital use this coalition to inflate the perceived amount of support</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 813.634px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22786);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">for the industry in the state, bolster its case with legislative and regulatory agencies, and</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 835.428px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22418);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">activate coalition members to oppose city and county ballot initiatives and influence elections</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 857.422px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.1935);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">(Dyer 2016a; EIS Solutions, n.d.a; Money Trails, n.d</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 857.422px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.1935);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 857.422px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.1935);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">...o</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page72R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 768.998px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21795);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">ne use Colorado makes of this tax is to pay for remediating abandoned and orphaned wells,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 790.892px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22227);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">an expense that often falls to the state. This includes the costs of properly closing wells,</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 812.685px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22714);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">monitoring for leaks, and remediating environmental damage. Yet the severance-tax pool is</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 834.479px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23758);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">severely underfunded due to inadequate bonding and the</span><span style="left: 590.504px; top: 834.479px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 594.709px; top: 834.479px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20215);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">ad valorem</span><span style="left: 684.52px; top: 834.479px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 688.697px; top: 834.479px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20336);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">tax credit—a tax break</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 856.372px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23161);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">lobbied for and secured by the American Petroleum Institute and its state affiliate, the</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 878.166px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21561);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Colorado Petroleum Council. All this leaves an increasing number of Coloradans both holding</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 900.06px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23466);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">the bag for remediation</span><span style="left: 315.495px; top: 900.06px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 319.594px; top: 900.06px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.25155);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">and</span><span style="left: 349.787px; top: 900.06px; font-size: 16.7px;" role="presentation" dir="ltr"> </span><span style="left: 353.879px; top: 900.06px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2297);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">suffering the ongoing health consequences.</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page72R_mcid6" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page72R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 951.9px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.29901);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span class="markedContent" id="page72R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 951.9px; font-size: 20px; transform: scaleX(1.29901);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Inflated Jobs Claims</span></span></b><span class="markedContent" id="page72R_mcid7" /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page72R_mcid7"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 997.075px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2092);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page72R_mcid7"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 997.075px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2092);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Colorado’s oil and gas industry claims to be a critical source of jobs, but such claims are greatly</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1018.97px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20911);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">exaggerated. As noted, oil and gas extraction accounted for an estimated 24,786 jobs in 2019</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1040.76px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.20429);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">(BEA, n.d.b)—well under 1 percent of jobs in the state—and that number is steadily shrinking.</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1062.56px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2296);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">Even counting jobs related to the industry, such as support activities for mining and refining</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1084.45px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22592);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">coal and oil, the share barely hits 1 percent. Meanwhile, leisure and hospitality provide at least</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1106.34px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19379);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">10 times as many jobs in Colorado as the oil and gas industry (CDLE 2021).</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page72R_mcid8"><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1148.04px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22893);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">It is true that energy employment, including jobs related to the oil and gas industry, is</span><br role="presentation" /><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1169.94px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2289);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">important to the state economy, but solar and wind jobs are a growing part of the energy,,,</span></span><span class="markedContent" id="page52R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 857.422px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.1935);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page50R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1178.05px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22674);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page46R_mcid22"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1167.62px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2342);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page40R_mcid6"><span style="left: 122.417px; top: 1174.47px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.23237);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page37R_mcid19"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1167.52px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22986);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page35R_mcid5"><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 980.05px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.21285);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page31R_mcid24"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1174.34px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22306);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page29R_mcid7"><span style="left: 122.383px; top: 855.947px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.2112);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page25R_mcid68"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1131.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19598);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page22R_mcid12"><span style="left: 122.4px; top: 1173.42px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.22916);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page13R_mcid12"><span style="left: 122.39px; top: 1010.18px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.19914);" role="presentation" dir="ltr"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid113"><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 1144.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr" /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markedContent" id="page1R_mcid113"><span style="left: 879.909px; top: 1144.38px; font-size: 16.7px; transform: scaleX(1.16042);" role="presentation" dir="ltr">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">shawn martini frack prop 97 colo rising?
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>HBW Resources
Senior Communications Director</b>&nbsp; Senior Communications Director
HBW Resources LLC HBW Resources LLC
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">2012 - 2016 · 4 yrs</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
Denver, CO Denver, CO
Shawn

successfully provided guidance to HBW and its clients on

communications, marketing, outreach and policy to help achieve their

goals in both the public and private arena. He worked to establish

organizational reputation and thought leadership to advocate for policy

and projects using a broad range of traditional and new media

strategies.&nbsp; Shawn successfully provided guidance to HBW and its clients

on communications, marketing, outreach and policy to help achieve their

goals in both the public and private arena. He worked to establish

organizational reputation and thought leadership to advocate for policy

and projects using a broad range of traditional and new media

strategies.…see more</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.boulderweekly.com/news/signer-beware/">https://www.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">boulderweekly.</span>com/news/signer-beware/</a>
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 49px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.05; letter-spacing: -0.02em; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Signer beware</font></h1><p class="td-post-sub-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; padding: 5px 0px 8px; border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(241, 241, 241); border-top: 1px dashed rgb(241, 241, 241); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pro-oil-and-gas-industry Initiative #138 has a familiar pedigree</font></p><div class="meta-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 17px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 300; opacity: 1; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><div class="td-post-author-name" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-right: 3px;"><div class="td-author-by" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.boulderweekly.com/author/joeldyer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; text-decoration: none !important; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;">Joel Dyer</a></font><div class="td-author-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>&nbsp;</span>-</font></div></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>&nbsp;</span><b><span class="td-post-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-right: 3px;"><time class="entry-date updated td-module-date" datetime="2016-06-16T16:26:26+00:00" style="box-sizing: border-box;">June 16, 2016</time></span></b></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">W</span><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">hen

it comes to the ballot initiatives being put forward this election

cycle — at least the ones pertaining to oil and gas extraction — you

often hear them referred to with terms like “community rights” or “local

government authority.”</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">But

unlike in the past, those terms are being applied to a variety of

initiatives, including one that would actually prevent communities from

creating local ordinances to protect themselves from oil and gas

extraction in close proximity to their homes, schools and hospitals.</span></b></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">As

a result, signing a petition in 2016 has become a rather confusing

exercise wherein “signer beware” seems an appropriate warning. Not

surprisingly to many observers of the ongoing and heated battle over

fracking in Colorado, this confusion due to the blurring of such terms

doesn’t appear to be an accident.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Over

the past five years, the terms “community rights” and “local authority ”

have become closely tied to the various citizen-driven initiatives

written to allow local communities or even counties the right to ban or

delay fracking or otherwise regulate oil and gas extraction within their

jurisdictions. This explains why these terms so often find their way

into the official or popular titles of such citizen efforts. This year’s

initiatives with that same intent are no exception.</span></font></p><p class="p4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">•<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;<span>&nbsp;</span></span>•<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;<span>&nbsp;</span></span>•</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Initiative

#40 is most often referred to as “The Colorado Community Rights

Amendment” or the “Local Governance Amendment.” It has been put forward

as a project of Coloradans for Community Rights.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Proponents

of Initiative #40 claim the amendment addresses the conflicts that

exist between the fundamental rights of communities, people and the

environment, and the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> excessive legal authority that politicians have wrongly granted to corporations.</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">They

further claim #40 would not only allow local communities to ban or

otherwise regulate oil and gas extraction, but also allow local

governments to control all industrial activity as well as other things,

such as allowing communities to set their own minimum wage limits.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp; &nbsp;</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Another

initiative designed to empower local authority to regulate oil and gas

extraction is also currently gathering signatures. Initiative #75,

titled “Local Government Authority to Regulate Oil and Gas Development,”

was put forward by <b>Coloradans Resisting Extreme Energy Development (CREED).</b></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Proponents

of #75 say it would give local governments the ability to protect

citizens from the harmful industrial processes of oil and gas extraction

by allowing a community to ban them within city limits or otherwise

apply local regulations stricter than current state regulations.</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b>CREED is also gathering signatures for Initiative #78 titled “Mandatory Setbacks From Oil and Gas Development,” </b>which,

if it makes the ballot and then passes, would force the oil and gas

industry to leave a 2,500-foot buffer or “setback” between oil and gas

drilling/production operations and homes, schools and hospitals. CREED

says the size of the buffer zone was determined based on health

studies.&nbsp;</span></font></p><p class="p4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">•<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;<span>&nbsp;</span></span>•<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;<span>&nbsp;</span></span>•</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">In

the past, anyone supporting the effort to put an initiative on the

ballot giving citizens and local governments more control over the oil

and gas industry simply had to listen for the code words “community

rights” or “local control” coming out of the signature gatherer’s mouth

and then sign the petition. But times have changed and so have the oil

and gas industry’s strategies.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">There is another ballot measure making the rounds this year, Initiative #138.</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The popular title for #138 is “Local Regulation of Oil and Gas Development.” I know, sounds familiar right?</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">As

you can see, #138’s informal title is shockingly similar to Initiative

#75’s title of “Local Government Authority to Regulate Oil and Gas

Development.”</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">It

certainly seems bizarre and more than a little inappropriate for the

Secretary of State’s office, which oversees such matters, to have

allowed two initiatives collecting signatures at the exact same time to

be operating under virtually identical names.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">This name debacle is a recipe for a range of signature-gathering disasters from mere confusion to outright deception.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">So

just how similar are the two initiatives in what they are seeking to

accomplish? While the names may be virtually identical, they are, in

fact, opposites.&nbsp;</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Initiative #138 says the following:</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Shall

there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution stating that local

governments may enact and enforce local laws and regulations concerning

oil and gas development or operations so long as the laws and

regulations are no more restrictive than, and do not conflict with,

state laws or regulations?”</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">At

first blush, it’s hard to understand the point of passing this

initiative. The Colorado Supreme Court pretty much just made this the

law of the land when it struck down both the fracking ban in Longmont

and Fort Collins’ moratorium. It is simply redundant to that ruling.</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">And

obviously, despite its deceptive title, for all practical purposes, the

goal of #138 is to eliminate all rights of all local governments to

regulate oil and gas extraction in any way that is contrary to the

state’s oversight, which the industry largely controls due to its

outsized influence over our governor and state house. In short, pass

#138 and nothing changes.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">So what’s the point?</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Good question.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">According

to the Secretary of State’s office, the designated representatives of

Initiative #138 are Shawn Martini and Scott Prestidge.<span>&nbsp;</span></span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The lineage of these two “designated representatives” tells you all you need to know about Initiative #138.</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Prestidge

is the energy industry director of the Denver Area Chamber of Commerce

where he works for political operative Kelly Brough. You may remember

Brough from<span>&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Boulder Weekly</i>’s

“Behind the curtain” investigation. She is the former Gov. Hickenlooper

staffer who is a member of<b> Colorado Concern,</b> the state’s most

influential organization when it comes to pushing for unfettered oil and

gas extraction.</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">She

is, or was last year, also on the Advisory Committee for CRED, the

pro-oil-and-gas group funded by Anadarko Petroleum and Noble Energy.</span></b></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">CRED

pays for many of the pro-fracking commercials that inundate the

airwaves these days. CRED also paid for the pro-fracking “energy and

environment” section that previously ran in the<span>&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Denver Post</i><span>&nbsp;</span>leading up to the 2012 elections in an effort to turn back the anti-fracking citizens initiatives that year.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b>Brough also sat on the board of <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Vital for Colorado</span>, </b>a

pro-oil-and-gas front group working to defeat citizen opposition to

unfettered oil and gas extraction in their communities, including

previous and current citizen initiatives such as #75, #78 and #40.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As you may recall from previous<span>&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Boulder Weekly</i><span>&nbsp;</span>investigations,

<b> Vital for Colorado has strong ties to Josh Penry and his EIS Solutions

consulting firm as well as to Penry’s wife Kristin Strohm who runs the

controversial Common Sense Policy Roundtable (CSPR), </b>which works with

both Vital and the Koch Brothers. </span>Strohm runs CSPR through her position at <b>Starboard

Group, one of the nation’s leading fundraising organizations for

conservative causes and Republican political campaigns</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">DeSmogBlog and Greenpeace have referred to Penry and Strohm as the nation’s “power couple of fracking.”</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">For

a more complete explanation of how the oil and gas industry runs the

state of Colorado and why establishment Democrats and Republicans alike

are working behind the scenes to defeat citizen initiatives like #78,

#75 and #40, please read<span>&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Boulder Weekly</i>’s two previous investigations, “<a href="http://www.boulderweekly.com/news/who-killed-the-vote-on-fracking/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; text-decoration: none !important;">Who killed the vote on fracking?</a>” from Sept. 17, 2015 and “<a href="http://www.boulderweekly.com/news/behind-the-curtain/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; text-decoration: none !important;">Behind the curtain</a>” from Oct. 2, 2014.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">This is the circle in which <b>Prestidge operates.</b></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b>He

currently sits on the board of Vital for Colorado</b> along with several

members of Colorado Concern, including its Executive Director Mike Kopp.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Chad

Vorthman, executive vice president of the Colorado Farm Bureau, is also

on the board of <b>Vital for Colorado </b>and the advisory Committee for CRED,

which brings us to Shawn Martini.</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">A

few years back, Martini was director of communications at the Colorado

Farm Bureau. But he took a four-year hiatus to be the senior

communications director for an outfit called HBW Resources, LLC out of

Houston. At HBW, one of Martini’s tasks was to pen a fracking blog that

kept track of anti-fracking activism around the country for the benefit

of HBW’s oil industry clients. The blog rated states red, yellow or

green based on how much anti-fracking activity was occurring and how

much opposition there was to drilling tight shale formations via

fracking. Colorado was rated “red.”</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Martini

recently returned to Colorado and his old friend Chad Vorthman at the

Farm Bureau. Martini’s new title is vice president of advocacy and, of

course, designated representative of Initiative #138.</span></span></font></p><p class="p4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">•<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;<span>&nbsp;</span></span>•<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;<span>&nbsp;</span></span>•</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s4" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The

pedigree of Initiative #138 raises the question of whether or not it’s

just a coincidence that this oil-and-gas–industry friendly initiative

sells itself with a nearly identical name to the one already being used

by Initiative #75, a citizen effort that is attempting to accomplish the

exact opposite outcome as #138.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s4" style="box-sizing: border-box;">And

does it seem a well thought out strategy for petition gatherers for

#138 to be, according to numerous citizen accounts, concentrating their

efforts in places like Boulder County and Denver? Places where support

for the oil and gas industry’s desire to restrict community rights so

fracking can be done in neighborhoods is at its absolute lowest?</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Wouldn’t

it make more sense to gather signatures in places like Weld and

Garfield counties or Pueblo and Colorado Springs where some people might

be more receptive to signing away their communities’ rights for the

benefit of oil and gas industry profits in exchange for the industry’s

promise of permanent jobs, a promise we now know was only temporary?<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp; &nbsp;</span></span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">These

oil industry operatives’ choice of where to solicit signatures really

did seem odd until we started hearing from people who claim that after

signing a petition they thought would amend the constitution to allow

local fracking bans, they now fear they may have mistakenly signed

Initiative #138.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">It’s the kind of mistake that should rarely if ever happen with proper oversight from the Secretary of State’s office.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box;">At

the end of the day, it’s the responsibility of each of us to read and

make sure we know what we are signing. If you believe you signed the

wrong petition, then by all means take the time to sign the right one.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b>The

stories floating around about $1,000 fines for signing more than one

“local regulation of oil and gas” petition are just more deception aimed

at Colorado citizens</b>. If you feel like a petitioner has

intentionally deceived you, take their name and report them to the

Secretary of State’s office. There is always a very slim chance that

someone in that office might even write it down.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.72; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 1.4em; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">But for now, I’m afraid signer beware is your best strategy.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span></span></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div>