11 April 2014, News Wires – A pro-industry group fighting ballot initiatives in Colorado aimed at curbing hydraulic fracturing has rolled out a Spanish version of its website in an effort to win over Latino voters in the US state.
Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (Cred), which was formed by US onshore giants Noble Energy and Anadarko Petroleum, is now providing a Spanish translation of its educational webpage studyfracking.com.
The pair, which have vast holdings in the Niobrara tight-oil play in the Denver-Julesburg basin, are hoping to influence Colorado voters to reject statewide measures that could restrict their ability to fracture wells.
“Fracking” actually requires no translation from English to Spanish, but supporters hope to explain to the significant Latino population in Colorado the importance of the practice to their business and to the state economy.
The studyfracking.com page includes links to a variety of information ranging from basic explanations of how fracking works to more scholarly reports.
Latino voters have been an increasingly important block in Colorado and are credited with helping deliver the crucial swing state for Barack Obama during the 2012 presidential election.
According to 2012 report from Pew Charitable Trusts, there were more than 400,000 Latino voters in Colorado. The Colorado Secretary of State’s office pegs the total number of voters in the state at a little more than 3.5 million.
While Colorado has been a producing state for decades, development of the Niobrara has shifted activity from the more sparsely populated western portion of the state to the east side of the Rocky Mountains where drilling is now happening in close proximity to larger cities.
Already, citizens have filed to put an initiative on the ballot in the upcoming elections that would change the state’s constitution to allow local governments such as towns and counties make their own regulations governing fracturing.
Late last year, four municipalities along the Front Range north of Denver voted to ban fracking for five years or more, but the state has argued that it alone has the power to regulate the oil industry.
When the town of Longmont passed a similar moratorium, the Colorado attorney general and the Colorado Oil & Gas Association both sued the city, arguing that the ban was unconstitutional.
That case is still working its way through the courts.
– Upstream
