Thanks to the deep pockets of activist groups based thousands of miles from the Front Range and a coordinated campaign spewing misinformation about the safety of fracking, radical environmentalists convinced voters in four Colorado cities to ban fracking. This week, however, these green radicals found out that not all Colorado voters buy their anti-science agenda.

Loveland, Colorado surprised environmentalists when voters defeated a proposed fracking moratorium. The city is the sixth Colorado locality to vote on a fracking moratorium, but the first to vote against restrictions.

Anti-fracking activists branded this fight as a “grassroots” quest led by local Loveland citizens, but the usual big green suspects were actually behind the campaign. The Sierra Club used its vast resources to run an aggressive ground game endorsing the fracking ban and working its get-out-the-vote machine. Also heavily involved in the campaign was Frack Free Colorado, a “local” group founded by New York-based celebrities. Even the supposedly hyper-local group Protect Our Loveland used the help of Local Control Colorado (which is dominated by Washington D.C.-based Food & Water Watch).

Protect Our Loveland certainly didn’t endear itself to voters with its association with prominent anti-fracking activist Phillip Doe. Writing in the left-wing outlet Counterpunch, Doe compared fracking supporter Rep. B.J. Nikkel to a Nazi and described her as “a trained talking dog.” These comments understandably resulted in uproar and demands for apologies from Doe and Protect Our Loveland.

Environmentalists were eager to capitalize on their anti-energy victories in other Colorado cities by expanding their campaign statewide. But the rest of Colorado might not be ready to lose over 60,000 well-paying jobs and pay higher energy bills just because a few radical activists want to give the middle finger to the energy industry this November.