Colorado protesters on Thursday disrupted work at a controversial oil and gas development site near a school east of Greeley, blocking a bulldozer. A 23-year-old man who chained himself to the bulldozer was jailed.
Weld County Sheriff’s deputies charged Cullen Lobe with second-degree criminal trespassing after the action at an Extraction Oil and Gas site near the Bella Romero Academy. The deputies also ticketed several other protesters for criminal tampering.
The protesters began their action around 9 a.m. They ordered the driver of the bulldozer to leave it. He complied. They draped a homemade banner — “People over Pipelines” — across the yellow bulldozer as they occupied the construction site on private property near the school, which is part of Greeley-Evans School District 6.
Protesters from other areas along Colorado’s Front Range joined the action at the site, where Extraction is building a 24-well pad. This project has been contested for at least two years, leading to a school board resolution and a lawsuit.
When deputies arrived shortly before 10 a.m., they repeatedly ordered the protesters to leave, sheriff’s department spokesman Francisco Saucedo said.
Lobe was still in the Weld County North Jail Complex Thursday evening.
“We asked them who they were with. They would not give that information,” Saucedo said. “They wouldn’t tell the deputies anything. I don’t know what exactly they were protesting.”
Nobody was hurt during the protest, authorities said.
Extraction Oil and Gas officials went to the scene.
“We plan to pursue those criminal charges to the fullest extent the law allows,” company spokesman Brian Cain said. “The site is now secure, and we are back to work as normal.”