"Colorado Activists Submit Petitions for Referendums on Fracking"

"In an effort to halt the advance of the oil industry in Colorado, environmental activists said they submitted enough signatures on Monday to place on November’s ballot two initiatives aimed at severely limiting hydraulic fracturing.

If either measure passes, it would represent the most serious political effort yet in the United States to stop hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the technique used to blast through shale and other hard rocks with water, sand and chemicals to release oil and natural gas.

One of the Colorado ballot initiatives would establish local control over oil and gas operations, including fracking, while the other would prohibit drilling and fracking in a buffer zone 2,500 feet around occupied buildings, waterways and open public spaces like parks. That could effectively prohibit new exploration and production in as much as 95 percent of the surface area of the state’s five top petroleum- and gas-producing counties, according to Colorado regulators."

Clifford Krauss reports for the New York Times August 8, 2016.