Reject SB-035
The CO Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee is to consider SB-035 this Thursday. This bill could easily be used to criminalize peaceful protest at oil and gas sites, making peaceful protest a felony, punishable by huge fines and 18 months in prison. Similar bills have been introduced in 8 states in what appears to be a coordinated effort by the fossil fuel industry to prevent citizens from exercising our Constitutional rights of free speech and assembly and to peacefully protest oil and gas sites located too close to our homes and schools.
Help stop this infringement on our rights - tell the Senators who serve on the committee to vote against SB-035!
SB-035 seems to target only physical damage to oil and gas infrastructure, but it can be interpreted to include peaceful protests if they "interrupt or interfere with" oil and gas operations. Here is the provision of greatest concern: Section 2: "(2) Any person who in any manner, without the consent of the owner or operator, knowingly alters, obstructs, interrupts, or interferes with or attempts to alter, obstruct, interrupt, or interfere with the action of any equipment used or associated with oil or gas gathering operations or places another in danger of death or serious bodily injury commits a class 2 misdemeanor 6 FELONY."
People across Colorado are increasingly concerned about the dangerous air emissions, water contamination, and blast radius around oil and gas sites endangering air and water quality and people's health and safety. With the Supreme Court's decision last May to reject local control of oil and gas operations, many Coloradans have little recourse to protect their families or voice their dissent with oil and gas operations that are often being sited right by neighborhoods and schools. These operations often create almost unbearable noise and vibration, truck traffic, and smells that are destroying people's quality of life and home values and produce toxic emissions that are known to damage people's health - especially children and the elderly. Emissions, toxic chemical spills, negative affects on health, water and air contamination, decreasing property values and other deleterious impacts from this industry are well documented.
Allowing peaceful protest is an important part of our history and helps create 'a more perfect union'. At many times in the past there have been unjust laws that Americans stood up against and protested to change - such as the right of women and people of color to vote, slavery, and workers' protections. As the evidence around the harms of oil and gas operations on people's health and safety continues to mount, more Coloradans are feeling a duty to protect themselves and their families by protesting when oil and gas operations are proposed near their neighborhoods. History will likely show that current regulations provided by the COGCC were insufficient to protect people's health and safety and that those protesting to protect their families were on the right side of history. In the meantime, it would be a violation of our Constitutional rights of free speech and assembly to subject those who may 'attempt to interrupt, interfere or obstruct' oil and gas operations with a felony charge.
Send a message to the Senate committee member urging them to reject SB-035! Please spread the word!
Thank you for taking action!
Reject SB-035
The CO Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee is to consider SB-035 this Thursday. This bill could easily be used to criminalize peaceful protest at oil and gas sites, making peaceful protest a felony, punishable by huge fines and 18 months in prison. Similar bills have been introduced in 8 states in what appears to be a coordinated effort by the fossil fuel industry to prevent citizens from exercising our Constitutional rights of free speech and assembly and to peacefully protest oil and gas sites located too close to our homes and schools.
Help stop this infringement on our rights - tell the Senators who serve on the committee to vote against SB-035!
SB-035 seems to target only physical damage to oil and gas infrastructure, but it can be interpreted to include peaceful protests if they "interrupt or interfere with" oil and gas operations. Here is the provision of greatest concern: Section 2: "(2) Any person who in any manner, without the consent of the owner or operator, knowingly alters, obstructs, interrupts, or interferes with or attempts to alter, obstruct, interrupt, or interfere with the action of any equipment used or associated with oil or gas gathering operations or places another in danger of death or serious bodily injury commits a class 2 misdemeanor 6 FELONY."
People across Colorado are increasingly concerned about the dangerous air emissions, water contamination, and blast radius around oil and gas sites endangering air and water quality and people's health and safety. With the Supreme Court's decision last May to reject local control of oil and gas operations, many Coloradans have little recourse to protect their families or voice their dissent with oil and gas operations that are often being sited right by neighborhoods and schools. These operations often create almost unbearable noise and vibration, truck traffic, and smells that are destroying people's quality of life and home values and produce toxic emissions that are known to damage people's health - especially children and the elderly. Emissions, toxic chemical spills, negative affects on health, water and air contamination, decreasing property values and other deleterious impacts from this industry are well documented.
Allowing peaceful protest is an important part of our history and helps create 'a more perfect union'. At many times in the past there have been unjust laws that Americans stood up against and protested to change - such as the right of women and people of color to vote, slavery, and workers' protections. As the evidence around the harms of oil and gas operations on people's health and safety continues to mount, more Coloradans are feeling a duty to protect themselves and their families by protesting when oil and gas operations are proposed near their neighborhoods. History will likely show that current regulations provided by the COGCC were insufficient to protect people's health and safety and that those protesting to protect their families were on the right side of history. In the meantime, it would be a violation of our Constitutional rights of free speech and assembly to subject those who may 'attempt to interrupt, interfere or obstruct' oil and gas operations with a felony charge.
Send a message to the Senate committee member urging them to reject SB-035! Please spread the word!
Thank you for taking action!