News & Alerts
November 1, 2020 BOULDER COUNTY DISTRICT COURT RULES AGAINST REINSTATEMENT OF LONGMONT’S HYDRAULIC FRACTURING BANpdf
On November 1, 2020, Judge Judith L. LaBuda of the Boulder County, Colorado District Court agreed with the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA), granting their motion for summary judgment in Our Health Our Future Our Longmont et al v. State Of Colorado et al., Case No. 2020CV3033 (Order). COGA intervened in the case, in which the Plaintiffs sought reinstatement of Longmont’s ban on hydraulic fracturing within the city in the wake of Senate Bill 19-181. Longmont’s ban, enacted in 2012, had previously been declared unconstitutional under City of Longmont v. Colo. Oil and Gas Ass’n, 369 P.3d 573, 576 (Colo. 2016). Judge LaBuda acknowledged that SB 19-181 “changed the law affecting local government’s power to regulate land use” (Order at page 3), but that hydraulic fracturing is a matter of mixed state and local concern, and Longmont’s ban is in operational conflict with State law and is thus preempted. Judge LaBuda’s order is available on the attached PDF.