"Colorado Voters Just Made It A Lot Harder To Pass Fracking Bans"

"In recent years, a number of communities in the state have passed local [fracking] bans, but the state Supreme Court struck them down. Activists then decided to try to change the constitution to allow local fracking bans. So the oil and gas industry then decided to try to make changing the constitution more difficult.

And that brings us to Amendment 71, which the oil and gas industry pushed onto the ballot and which about 57 percent of voters approved. It sounds benign: It requires any proposed ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to get a certain number of signatures from each of Colorado’s Senate districts, and to ultimately get 55 percent of the vote, rather than the previously required 50 percent."

Emma Foehringer Merchant reports for Grist November 9, 2016.