Colorado voters are being asked to decide on 14 statewide ballot initiatives, including Amendment 82.
The measure is relatively simple, less than sixty words in total. It asks voters to amend the state constitution, establishing a right for consumers to purchase natural gas for cooking or heating, as well as a right for distributors and utilities to sell natural gas for use in homes and businesses.
What Amendment 82’s supporters are saying
Amendment 82 was brought forward by Advance Colorado, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that does not disclose its donors. Their website says their mission is pushing back “the progressive policies that have put our state on the wrong track,” along with empowering taxpayers and families, and limited government.
No one from the group responded to requests for an interview for this story.
However, Elizabeth Cavan, Advance Colorado’s outreach director and policy analyst, discussed the ballot measure in an August 4 episode of the Advance Colorado Rundown, the group’s podcast.
“One thing that people don't realize at the Capitol, our lawmakers, is that 70% of Colorado households still rely on natural gas for heating and cooking,” Cavan said.
She spoke with Sarah Blackhurst, CEO of Action Colorado, a rural advocacy group. Blackhurst said that figure is higher in rural parts of Colorado, and that natural gas for heating homes is more reliable than electricity from the grid, especially during winter storms.
“There is a great place for renewables, they cannot replace nor will they ever replace firm baseload,” she said.
Natural gas is legal in Colorado, though the state has a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and mandates electric-ready construction in residential building codes. Local jurisdictions, like Crested Butte and Lafayette, have adopted codes that require new construction to be all-electric (Crested Butte’s code is for commercial buildings only, and Lafayette’s is for residential and commercial) and others, like Aspen, are taking steps to do the same.
Blackhurst decried state regulations on utilities, requiring them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, like the clean heat plans issued by the Public Utilities Commission last winter.
“We've come to a place in Colorado where we have to say we have to protect the right of how we heat our homes,” she said. “Who is anybody at the Capitol to say, or anybody else to say, ‘you have to heat your home in this way’? If the electricity goes out, you're screwed. You're risking the lives of your family, potentially.”
What Amendment 82’s opponents are staying
During the podcast, Blackhurst and Cavan did not address the portion of the amendment that would guarantee the right for distributors and utilities to sell natural gas.
That's the piece that worries the amendment’s opponents the most.
Logan Harper, a family physician that focuses on the effects of climate change on public health, said that’s “because it gives the industry a legal tool to fight back against anything the government does to try to limit their ability to sell natural gas.”
If the amendment becomes part of the constitution, it would become open to interpretation through legal challenges, which Harper said the oil and gas industry could use to preempt any kind of regulation.
“The government's ability to kind of keep fracking away from homes, to keep air pollution at a minimum, (and) to protect the public health of Coloradans would be at risk if this amendment passes,” he said.
Jenny Gaeng is the senior political program manager for Conservation Colorado, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group opposing Amendment 82. She said it wouldn't just be the state government that could be prevented from enacting regulations on oil and natural gas production, but it could also affect local jurisdictions that are trying to meet their climate goals.
Gaeng is also worried about the “the economic implications of rate payers being forced to subsidize new natural gas infrastructure because someone has a new constitutional right to it that raises their energy bills, even if it's infrastructure they don't want and will never use.”
Gaeng and other environmental advocates also say that even if voters don’t particularly care about greenhouse gas emissions or climate change, the amendment is still a handout to the oil and gas industry—and has no place in Colorado’s constitution.
“Fundamentally, this is about protecting one industry, giving special protections to one industry above all others in Colorado's constitution, and therefore locking in corporate profits indefinitely,” she said. “We do not believe that any industry gets special protection in Colorado's constitution, and we especially believe it is not an appropriate place to guarantee polluter profits.”
Amendment 82 needs 55% of the vote to be added to the state’s constitution. Colorado counties began mailing out ballots at the beginning of October, and voters have until 7 p.m. on November 3rd, Election Day, to return their ballots. You can check your voter registration on the Secretary of State’s website, and view a copy of the Blue Book online.
Copyright 2026 Rocky Mountain Community Radio. This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including Aspen Public Radio.
