Gas forum set for March 31 in Hotchkiss

Citizens for a Healthy Community (CHC) is hosting a public educational forum to help residents understand what it considers threats from BLM's proposed oil and gas lease sale planned for the North Fork Valley. This forum, "Understanding the Threats of Oil and Gas Development," will be held on Saturday, March 31, from 12:30 to 5 p.m., at Hotchkiss High School.

The high school is located at 438 Bulldog Street.

The proximity of the proposed 30,000-acre lease sale to the North Fork communities' schools, homes, and sources of drinking water makes it crucial that the public is provided the opportunity to learn from the experts about the threats of fracking so they are able to submit substantive comments on BLM's Environmental Assessment. The deadline for public comment is April 6.

The slate of speakers for this forum features people who have experienced oil and gas development.

• Chip Northrup — Former planning manager for Atlantic Richfield Company, co-owner of Northrup Energy, and investor in the acquisition and sale of oil and gas projects for more than 30 years. Chip has served on the Texas Governor's Energy Advisory Council.

• Dr. Theo Colborn — Founder and president of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange and an expert on the health and environmental effects of chemicals used in oil and gas development.

• John Fenton — Rancher from Pavillion, Wyo., where the EPA has confirmed chemicals from oil and gas development have contaminated groundwater. Fenton is on the board of directors of the Powder River Basin Resource Council and has written articles published in High Country News.

• Calvin Tillman — Former mayor of Dish, Texas, a small town that was transformed into an industrial zone by natural gas development. Tillman works with state legislators on natural gas regulations and is active with the Texas Oil and Gas Accountability Project.

• Deborah Rogers — Financial analyst, former advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and authority on the economics of unconventional shale gas drilling (horizontal hydraulic fracking). She is on the regional steering committee of Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability Project.

• Kyle Tisdel — Staff attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center where he works in the Climate and Energy Program.

• Duke Cox — Longtime activist, former president of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, and member of the board of directors of Western Colorado Congress.

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