EnCana & Colorado Mtn College make an odd couple

EnCana & Colorado Mtn College make an odd couple by Jeremy Madden, Aspen Times, October 12, 2005
The deal between EnCana Oil & Gas and my alma mater Colorado Mountain College stinks worse than a frat house with a gas leak during pledge week. The deal involves EnCana donating $3 million to fund a new CMC facility in west Garfield County…. The union of CMC and EnCana is like a new Odd Couple. On one side you have CMC, a pillar of the mountain community. When you think of CMC you think art, education, nurses, EMTs, languages, outdoor education, computers, culinary delights and all that is good about our enlightened mountain communities. On the other side is EnCana, a relative newcomer to Colorado. In just a short period the Canadian supercorp has had numerous violations and racked up record fines with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. EnCana has polluted water supplies, caused evacuations of homes, talked of outsourcing Colorado jobs to Chinese workers and has been blamed by residents for tumors and other sudden ailments. Most recently, a gas leak in San Miguel County was so extensive it created a no-fly zone with a 10-mile radius. The problems of a Silt woman dealing with an EnCana gas leak were so severe that her story made it to the floor of the U.S. Senate. Along comes a $3 million donation to the beloved CMC. Boy, is EnCana slick. I don’t know what’s worse: EnCana’s cheap attempt to buy public favor or CMC agreeing to it.