City of Lafayette Council Candidates
Vote for not more than four (4)
Names appear as they do on the example ballot. Endorsements are in bold.
Tom Dowling
Clifton E. Smedley
Brad Wiesley
Gustavo Reyna
Merrily Mazza
Steve Kracha
Our
lack of endorsements for Lafayette council incumbents Steve Kracha and
Brad Wiesley is not a statement against their past performance on the
council. It is more about the needs of Lafayette going forward.
Both
current council members oppose Lafayette ballot Question 300, which
would prevent fracking and other oil- and gas-related activities within
city limits. Both support Question 2A, which would commit the citizens
of Lafayette to Xcel Energy for an additional two decades making it far
more difficult for the city to take advantage of new green energy
technologies that will, without question, come along during that 20-year
time frame.
While
there is certainly room for well-reasoned opposition to Question 300
(fracking), we don’t think the explanations being given by Wiesley and
Kracha for their opposition rise to that level.
We
don’t believe that opposing a fracking ban should be based on the fear
of lawsuits by the oil and gas industry or the state. By now, our
elected local leaders should be well aware that there will be no
significant protections for their communities coming from state or
federal bureaucrats charged with regulating the oil and gas industry. At
both those levels of government, the agencies are little more than
revolving doors for industry attorneys and other insiders whose primary
focus is to regulate the industry as little as possible.
We
also don’t believe that a ban is unnecessary simply because there
haven’t been any applications for drilling within Lafayette city limits
during the past 20 years.
Lafayette’s
current three-year moratorium was a good start for the city. But in
the long run, to protect itself from going the way of Erie, Frederick
and Firestone, towns where the drilling of wells within city limits has
significantly devalued the quality of life, Lafayette will have to
spend the money to fight its own fight against the oil and gas industry
along with Boulder County and its neighboring communities.
As BW has
previously written and shown with maps reflecting both geology and
drilling trends in Weld and Boulder counties, Lafayette will be drilled
in time without a ban. It is on trend and has substantial reserves
beneath the city.
Should
Boulder County’s moratorium run out or be overturned by the courts,
nearly 2,000 new wells will eventually be drilled, most on trend to the
southwest of Longmont and Erie. The low hanging fruit, those well
locations not within city limits, will go first. But make no mistake;
the permit requests will be coming to Lafayette in time.
As
for not obligating Lafayette residents to 20 more years of Xcel, this
issue is about how council members and potential council members view
the city’s future.
Does
Lafayette try to stay just like it is or does it strive to become
something better? We believe that demonstrating Lafayette’s commitment
to being more green and forward-thinking by passing both Question 2A and
Issue 301 will not only be better for the local and regional
environment, but will also be a critical key to driving Lafayette’s
future economic growth.
High
paying jobs in clean industries such as high tech locate in
communities that are affordable and have a proven commitment to
environmentalism. And those high-paying clean jobs become the drivers
of downtown restaurants and galleries, which spur still more
high-paying jobs. It is the creative cities cycle.
For
these reasons, we are endorsing the four candidates who we believe are
committed to a better future in Lafayette, the candidates we believe
are most likely to preserve the current quality of life by protecting
the city from the exploitative oil and gas industry, while
simultaneously moving toward a greener future and the economic growth
that will be spurred by that future.
View all of Boulder Weekly’s endorsements here.
