Conservation groups launch Western Slope anti-oil & gas billboard offensive

Even as the EPA eyes loosening air-quality standards for coal-fired power plants near national parks nationwide (including Mesa Verde in the Four Corners area), Colorado’s booming oil and gas industry is taking heat for its own impacts on air and water quality on the Western Slope.

According to The Associated Press, billboards and newspaper ads critical of the oil and gas sector and paid for by Colorado Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance are cropping up in the Grand Junction area.

The AP reported one of the billboards along Interstate 70 shows a deer silhouetted against a backdrop of oil and gas rigs with the tagline, “Where the deer and the antelope played.” The groups are pushing the state to pass more stringent drilling regulations to protect wildlife habitat and air and water quality. The new regs could be issued as soon as next month.

is an award-winning reporter who has covered energy, environmental and political issues for years. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Denver Post. He's founder of Real Vail and Real Aspen.

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