Lafayette may be primed to halt new oil and gas development on the eve of widescale fracking plans slated for Boulder County.
Officials on Tuesday evening tabled a decision until later this month, citing the need for more communication and the presence of all the council members before any decision can be made. Councilwoman Merrily Mazza, who said she would vote “no” on a moratorium last week, was absent.
If officially sanctioned next month, the measure would stay any drilling applications until November 2018.
The moratorium was spurred in part by new drilling plans announced last month, though officials on Tuesday warned of what they say may be a more immediate, personal threat: a growing schism between activist groups and city leaders.
Local fractivists fear a moratorium would conflict with the city’s “Climate Bill of Rights and Protections” — a measure that effectively, if not symbolically, preempts drilling in Lafayette in the name of residents’ health — which was approved earlier this year.
Read the full story
