Colorado Seeing Tide Turn Against Fracking Critics While Pennsylvania Sees the Opposite; Which Way Will Ohio Swing?

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From The Colorado Observer:
Last year, voters in Longmont passed a total ban on hydraulic fracturing, an embarrassing political setback for the oil and gas industry.  The defeat was a wake-up call for supporters of the industry, who along with Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper went to court to block local drilling prohibitions which, they say, go farther than state law allows. 
But Longmont may have been a high-water mark for the environmentalist lobby. 
In the months since voter approval of the Longmont fracking ban, jurisdiction after jurisdiction has lined up behind an all-of-the-above energy development policy, leaving 3 jurisdictions in Boulder – Longmont, The City of Boulder, and Boulder County (where a fracking ban is scheduled to end on June 10) as the only places that “fracktivists” have prevailed. 
In recent weeks, even as headlines screamed about continued efforts to block development in notoriously liberal Boulder, other Colorado communities have taken a more measured approach.
You can read the rest here.  Colorado, then, may be seeing a shift away from majority support of the anti-fracking lobby.

In Pennsylvania, though?  Things seem to be swinging the other direction.  From the Butler Eagle:
Three years ago I was able to report in a letter to the Eagle that the Butler County Democratic Committee had passed a resolution calling for a statewide moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for gas production. 
Today I am proud to report the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee has joined with the Butler committee in calling for such a moratorium. On Saturday, a strongly worded resolution passed by a 115 to 81 vote. This vote was taken at the meeting of the State Democratic Committee in Lancaster. The call for a moratorium was supported by state Democratic committeepersons from Butler County Jack Beiler and Georgiann Kerr. Kerr is also the chair of the Butler County Democratic Committee.
You can read the rest here.

So, as some Ohio communities seek to ban fracking and others embrace it, and as the industry fights it out with both in-state and out-of-state activists to win public opinion, which way will things turn here?  Time will tell.

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