On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

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Could someone from the Ritter administration tell us again, please, why the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission had to be reformed? Ah, yes: According to Harris Sherman, the state’s natural resources chief, the commission suffers from the impression that the industry is regulating itself.

Sherman is a sharp, capable fellow who knows the industry employs an army of experts to help it comply with reams of regulations. But what he was referring to, in part, is the fact that all but two of the oil and gas panel’s seven members must have a background in the industry; by contrast, a bill steaming ahead in the Senate with the governor’s support would require only three of nine commission members with such a background.

If the appearance of self-regulation is so important, however, and only a third of the oil and gas commission will soon need to boast expertise in the field, surely the same principle should be extended elsewhere.

After all, Colorado is home to a variety of boards dominated by the profession they oversee. A decisive majority of the Colorado Board of Veterinary Medicine are veterinarians, for example.
The Board of Dental Examiners is stacked with dentists and dental hygienists. Lawyers regulate themselves. And — to provide just one more example — while the Board of Medical Examiners actually includes four “public” members, they are easily overwhelmed by the larger number of docs.

The Ritter administration will no doubt want to address this scandalous state of affairs, and soon. For starters, why not require that two-thirds of the dental board be ... oh, I don’t know, how about car mechanics? That will certainly put any worries about self-regulation to rest.

Black flight?

Two months ago, the Rocky quoted Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Coal Creek Canyon, as claiming that charter schools cater to “white flight.” This week the Rocky reported that “about 13 percent of black students in (Denver Public Schools) attend charters, more than twice the rate of Hispanic or Anglo students.”

Would the Senate president also like to criticize black flight? Would anyone? Could we for once stipulate that parents who enroll their kids where they think they’re likely to thrive deserve something better than sneers?

Deadly ethanol?

Imagine the reaction in the environmental community to a study finding that a product touted by several corporations would “increase ozone-related mortality, hospitalization and asthma by about 9 percent in Los Angeles and 4 percent in the U.S. as a whole” compared to the existing product it would replace?

There would be concern expressed, without question. Indignation and outrage, in all likelihood. Possibly even demands to remove the suspect product from the marketplace.

But in fact there is such a new study. It was authored by a Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering, and it says that the culprit in question is, well, ethanol, the elixir slated to wean us from our fossil-fuel “addiction.”

The full sentence that was excerpted above appears on the opening page of professor Mark Z. Jacobson’s study: “It was found that E-85 (85 percent ethanol fuel, 15 percent gasoline) may increase ozone-related mortality, hospitalization and asthma by about 9 percent in Los Angeles and 4 percent in the U.S. as a whole relative to 100 percent gasoline.”

Of course, slowing down the E-85 bandwagon would disappoint the corn and ethanol lobbies, not to mention the politicians and their green allies who’ve elevated ethanol to an honored spot in the environmental hall of fame. So let’s be nice and not upset them by mentioning the study again.

Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountain
News.com.

READER COMMENTS

What a crock! Oil and Gas development can, and has, had severe impacts on local water and surface land, often owned by someone else. Dentists vets and car mechanics don't have anywhere near the possibility of impacting entire regions like this example so they don't need anywhere near the oversight that Oil & Gas development does.

Here's the URL I tried to link:
www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=4876

The American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest, which knows a thing or two about air pollution, lung disease and E85, disagrees with the Stanford compuer models. We have tested emissions using real fuel in real vehicles, our findings are very different.

Most experts agree -- as we do -- that E85 is a cleaner burning fuel that reduces pollution and greenhouse gases.

See more at: www.CleanAirChoice.org

I venture to say that most people that have not worked in or around the oil & gas industry would not know the difference between a wellhead and a gas pump. For Ritter to stack this commission with non-industry do-gooders is pure folly and the results will be disasterous in the future.

Vince accuses someone else of using a sneering tone.

Mr Pot, I'd like you to meet Ms. Kettle.

I wonder of VC gives a rats ass about the poor kids who live closer to freeways, and are documented to have higher rates of school absences related to pollution related respiratory illnesses.

Better access to government financed healthcare (medicaid) to provide them access to the opportunitites they need to advance themeselves? Nah! Sonds too much like socialism to me. Let them breath cake!

The Oil and Gas commission has no one to blame but themselves, their decisions have constantly favored industry over surface rights. Ritter is right and Vince as has been his trend lately wrong! An amazingly poorly researched and written opinion

Vince, you're right on with the ethanol double standard. It's senseless to be promoting ethanol use from a health standpoint, especially since Denver is on the verge of violating health standards for smog.

Thanks for taking a stand for public health!

That means that we need more people on the board who don't understand the issues?

We could require that 50% of judges not be lawyers.

More to the point. Has the writer ever heard of the EPA? They do some great work.

Vince may be in favor of allowing industries like oil and gas and timber to police themselves, but I think If my taxpayer dollars are included in the corporate welfare program for the oil companies, I would prefer that we keep a little closer eye on the situation than accepting their word that "all is well".

Ethanol is wrong, wrong and wrong. It is a huge boondogle for Midwestern Senators that crosses political boundaries (Tom Harkin, Chuck Grassley for e.g.) and for huge corporations such as Archers Daniel Midland. What a crock!

And when natural gas prices continue to skyrocket because drilling has been disincentivized or otherwise curtailed because of actions such as the Governor's, who then will all of these environmental types blame? Well, of course, Republicans and the Gas industry for "artificially" creating the circumstances. Folks, it's called "supply and demand". I know they don't teach that in your political science and diversity classes up in Boulder.

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