Coloradans to vote on whether they have a “right to natural gas”

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

A ballot measure written by a conservative nonprofit could amend the Colorado Constitution to enshrine fossil fuel companies’ right to sell methane gas and possibly force communities that have tried to eliminate gas appliances from new construction to back away from those efforts.

Advance Colorado, which wrote the measure and led the effort to gather enough signatures to add the measure to the ballot, submitted its petition on June 25 to put Initiative 177, the “Right to Natural Gas,” to voters in November’s state election.

The broad language of the measure—only 60 words in total—makes it difficult to predict how state agencies would implement it if it passes and many people worry the amendment would endanger Colorado’s ability to reach its climate goals. 

The proposed amendment states that “producers and utilities have the right to sell natural gas to homes and businesses.” That could force changes to building codes that encourage electric heating and cooking, undoing progress towards electrification.

“Really, it’s just a cynical attempt to lock fossil fuel industry profits into the state constitution,” said Kelly Nordini, CEO of Conservation Colorado, an environmental nonprofit. “That’s bad for people’s pocketbooks, for clean air, for clean water; it has no provisions for public health or safety.”

The ballot measure faced pushback earlier this year from House Democrats and Conservation Colorado. House Democrats proposed a bill that would have preemptively placed protections for public health and safety on the right to natural gas amendment. However, House Republicans ran out the clock on the bill during the final day of the legislative session, preventing it from being introduced. 

Conservation Colorado initially filed four ballot initiatives for November’s state election in response to the amendment: three seeking to hold oil and gas companies liable for harm caused by their operations, and one to stop utilities raising rates to pay for natural gas infrastructure expansion. The organization later decided not to pursue these initiatives to focus on opposing the right to natural gas measure.

Advance Colorado did not respond to requests for comment. However, in a report published in April, they argued that “burdensome” regulation places hidden costs on consumers and calls on the state to protect the right to energy choice. The report said that efforts towards decarbonization and electrification—key pillars of the state’s efforts to confront climate change—“would have a devastating impact on Colorado.”

Legislators and industry groups in other states have pursued similar actions to prevent the transition away from domestic methane gas use. From 2020 to 2024, 26 states passed preemptive bans on policies that required the states to transition away from methane gas use. For example, in 2021, Utah enacted a law banning restrictions on connections to gas utilities.

While the right to natural gas measure in Colorado has similar motivations to actions taken in other states, it takes a unique approach.

“We’re in uncharted terrain,” said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. “This would be the first constitutional amendment to provide a right to a particular fossil fuel.” A constitutional amendment would trump most legislation seeking to limit the use of methane gas, while the laws in other parts of the country don’t have the same power. 

Colorado’s ballot measure is also unique in its breadth: The language contains no caveats, explanations, or provisions for public safety. “It doesn’t reflect the sort of thorough public engagement and decision making, and the application of technical expertise which typically you would want when making these kinds of decisions,” said Burger. 

The decision to pursue the policy as a ballot measure also reflects a larger trend in Colorado politics. In recent years, citizen-initiated ballot measures have become the strategy of choice for conservatives in the state to pursue their policy priorities without going through the majority-blue legislature. 

Ballot measures historically have been used to pursue policies that would struggle through an unsympathetic legislature. Colorado’s 2004 Renewable Portfolio Standard, which established the state’s first push towards renewable energy, succeeded as a ballot measure when Republicans held a majority in the state government.

Voter turnout and engagement is low for local and state elections, especially for ballot issues, so financial backing can exert greater influence on the outcome. According to campaign finance disclosures, more than $1,000,000 was spent this year on signature collection for the right to natural gas initiative. 

Over the last three years, Advance Colorado and other conservative nonprofits have spent more than $8.6 million on canvassing for ballot initiatives that Advance Colorado writes. Since 2023, four conservative nonprofits—Advance Colorado, Colorado Dawn, Defend Colorado, and Common Sense America—have accounted for nearly all of the $10,000,000 of reported spending by citizens on ballot initiative canvassing in the state. 

While Advance Colorado has deep pockets, it does not have to disclose its funders, which led Nordini to worry about the motivations behind the ballot measure. “Who’s funding that? Who’s behind this? Who stands to benefit?” she asked. “We have no idea.”

Oil and gas has historically held considerable political power in Colorado state politics. According to state lobbying disclosures, three oil and gas companies—Chevron, Civitas, and Kinder Morgan—collectively registered 21 lobbyists in the 2025 session, and industry groups registered at least another 16. The state’s three largest employers—the University of Colorado, Denver International Airport, and Walmart—registered only 8 total in the same year. 

In 2023, Civitas, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Colorado Oil and Gas association lobbied to support HB23-1127 “Customer’s Right To Use Energy”—a proposed bill very similar to the right to natural gas amendment. The bill, which failed in committee, also would have prohibited local building codes that limited the use of natural gas. 

The right to natural gas measure arrives as the state pursues policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions from natural gas. Colorado currently generates around a third of its electricity from methane gas, and around 70 percent of the state’s homes use it for heating. In 2022, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission issued a rule requiring emissions from heating buildings to be cut by 41 percent by 2035. 

The state relies on incentives to encourage homeowners to make energy efficiency upgrades in their homes. Rebates for switching to electric heat pumps, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, were hugely popular with Coloradans—of the $31.9 million in funding released by the state in November 2025, only $3.5 million remains. Homeowners in the eastern half of the state reserved the four years’ worth of rebates available to them within six months.

Electric heat pumps emit less carbon than methane gas furnaces, even when methane gas powers the local electricity grid. They are more energy efficient, and as the grid incorporates more renewables, the emissions per unit of heat they generate goes down. Heat pumps can also lower utility bills, reduce indoor pollution and minimize the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

In the past five years, some municipalities in Colorado have adopted ambitious building codes that require heat pumps in new buildings to reduce carbon emissions. A 2022 policy in the City of Denver requires swapping methane gas furnaces for heat pumps whenever a home or commercial building needs a major repair to its heating system. The town of Crested Butte now requires new construction to be all-electric—that means no methane gas for heating, boilers, or cooking.

If Advance Colorado’s right to natural gas amendment passes in November, those building codes would likely need to change to maintain distributors’ ability to sell gas to homeowners and businesses.

The right to natural gas has to earn 55 percent of the vote to become part of the constitution, but it will face vocal opposition from environmental and progressive groups throughout the state. Conservation Colorado has submitted a campaign finance complaint alleging that Advance Colorado has failed to register an issue committee and disclose all expenditures related to the campaign.

Even though Advance Colorado gathered the signatures necessary to get the initiative on the November ballot, Nordini is optimistic that it won’t prevail in the election: “I think Colorado voters will see through this.”