Amid a historic drought, record heat and a deadly wildfire season, Coloradans will be asked by a right-wing “dark money” group this year to enshrine a “right” to a major source of climate pollution in the state constitution.
Backers of Initiative 177, led by the group Advance Colorado, submitted enough petition signatures to qualify for the November ballot, the Colorado secretary of state’s office said Thursday. Sponsors submitted 189,508 total signatures, 146,165 of which were deemed to be valid, and as a constitutional measure, it cleared the required 2% support in each of the 35 state Senate districts.
Initiative 177 proposes a two-sentence constitutional amendment that would give consumers the right to buy natural gas for cooking and heating, as well as producers the right to sell it.
“Consumers have the right to purchase natural gas for cooking or heating in homes or businesses throughout the state,” the measure reads. “Distributors and utilities have the right to sell natural gas for homes or businesses.”
The use of natural gas as a fuel for appliances in homes and businesses accounts for roughly 15% of Colorado’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. State policymakers have set a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, largely through incentives and investments encouraging a transition to electric appliances.
Advance Colorado, which does not disclose its donors, calls state policies “limiting the use of natural gas … economically incompatible with citizens’ energy needs.”
The group’s backing of Initiative 177 — which resembles previous measures floated by the oil and gas industry to establish constitutional protections for “energy choice” and bar state and local governments from restricting natural gas use — comes despite a mutual agreement between industry and environmental groups not to new pursue ballot measures until 2028. Advance Colorado has said it wasn’t a party to that deal.
Earlier this year, an effort by Democratic lawmakers to put unspecified “guardrails” around Initiative 177’s potential implementation was announced by legislative leaders but then dropped in the final days of the session. Environmental advocates, who initially argued the “truce” regarding oil and gas ballot measures had been broken by Advance Colorado, introduced two measures of their own in response, but did not move forward with signature gathering.
Initiative 177 is one of as many as 14 citizen initiatives that could appear on Colorado’s 2026 ballot. Seven measures have already qualified. The secretary of state’s office is required to determine the sufficiency of the remaining seven measures no later than Sept. 2.
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