Holy Cross Electric Co-Op Prez Draws Heat for Backing Board Incumbents

By David O. Williams

Carbondale rancher and Holy Cross Energy board president Tom Turnbull’s letter appeared in the Vail Daily last week. In it he backed incumbent board members Bob Starodoj and Mike Glass in an election to be decided Saturday at HCE’s annual meeting in Glenwood Springs.

It’s the latest move from Turnbull some observers say demonstrates a larger co-op culture that guards the status quo against any significant moves toward more environmentally friendly power generation.

Turnbull last year wrote in the 43,000-member co-op’s newsletter that “there is no doubt that we are witnessing a warming trend, but, historically, civilization has benefited and thrived in warmer periods as opposed to ice ages.”

The two largest clients for the co-op that provides power to residents of much of the Eagle River, Roaring Fork and lower Colorado River valleys are the Aspen Skiing Company and Vail Resorts – two companies clearly invested in longer, colder winters.

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Garfield County Unwilling to Endorse New Divide Creek Drilling Moratorium

GLENWOOD SPRINGS  — Garfield County commissioners will seek a meeting with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) to address ongoing concerns about possible water contamination from natural gas drilling in the Divide Creek area.

However, the commissioners stopped short of honoring area resident Lisa Bracken’s request that the county formally protest any further natural gas development within the former Divide Creek moratorium area until more is known about drilling impacts.

Commission Chairman John Martin said at a Monday meeting with Bracken, county oil and gas liaison Judy Jordan and consultant Geoff Thyne that he agrees the lingering concerns need to be addressed.

“I can go along with all of the recommendations, except the moratorium,” Martin said. “We have to think about the economy and jobs. That has to be a factor.”

But the county would like the COGCC to consider bringing 97 older gas wells that pre-dated current gas well standards up to date, and to give more credence to the findings of Thyne, the county’s geology consultant for the Divide Creek area.

Bringing the older wells up to modern standards may help determine if natural gas that continues to seep into Divide Creek, and may possibly be the source of domestic water well contamination, is a result of drilling activity in the area, as Thyne has concluded.

So far, though, the COGCC has been unwilling to work with county staff and area residents to address the concerns, and have gone so far as to discredit Thyne’s work, Jordan said.

“I have never seen a state agency behave in this fashion,” she wrote in a recent memo to the county commissioners. “The correct way to respond to our broaching of water issues would have been to call a meeting with us and [Thyne] to discuss his report and any perceived flaws or differences in interpretation.”

EnCana Oil and Gas, USA has recently applied for approximately 10 new wells in the area, which Bracken has requested assistance from the county in opposing.