The Trump administration wants to lease more than 90 square miles of public lands along the western slope of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains for fracking. Its plans would bypass environmental reviews, despite the fact that oil and gas development in the area would worsen deadly ozone pollution in an area struggling with smog. The sale is scheduled for June 7.
Ozone pollution in eastern Utah and northern Colorado already exceeds federal limits, largely because of unchecked oil and gas development. More fracking would worsen pollution in these areas, as well as in the small communities southeast of Dinosaur National Monument.
The fracking plan is also expected to worsen water shortages. The region to be fracked is drying up, driven in part by climate change. Fracking wells in the region use up to 25 million gallons of water per well.
Read the press release.
