Amendment 82: Right to Purchase and Sell Natural Gas for Cooking or Heating in Homes and Businesses Amendment

Amendment 82 would establish constitutional protections for consumers to purchase natural gas for home or business use and for distributors and utilities to sell it.

Why Vote YES?

Colorado families and businesses should be able to choose how they heat their homes, cook their food, and operate their businesses.

Natural gas is an important energy source for households, restaurants, manufacturers and other businesses. Government should not unnecessarily eliminate consumer choice by prohibiting access to a lawful energy source.

Energy policy should be based on reliability, affordability and consumer choice—not on forcing every Coloradan into one preferred technology.

Position: Protect consumer choice and energy freedom. Vote YES.

The DMCC Board voted to support Amendment 82, which would create constitutional rights for consumers to purchase natural gas for cooking and heating, and for utilities and distributors to sell it to homes and businesses.

This measure protects energy choice and planning certainty for homeowners, restaurants, hospitals, manufacturers and buildings that use natural gas. It allows businesses to maintain operational flexibility while ensuring access to reliable and affordable energy sources.

This measure is in direct response to policymakers’ continued efforts via statute and rule to mandate preferred energy sources regardless of their economic or technical feasibility and ban non-preferred choices.

Common sense to curb anti-fossil fuel radicals.

In Colorado, we can already buy and sell natural gas. Amendment 82 adds buying and selling natural gas to the constitution. Making natural gas a protected energy source is not a good use of the amendment process. We recommend voting NO on this amendment. - Amendment 82 could increase energy costs. Companies could bring many lawsuits in areas of Colorado where the people who live there want clean and efficient energy. - Amendment 82 could result in building regulations that increase the cost of affordable housing. - Amendment 82 affects public safety by locking natural gas into our constitution. We understand the impact that fossil fuels have on our air, which could lead to cancer, respiratory issues, and cardiovascular problems. This amendment makes it harder for our elected legislators to provide leadership on diverse energy sources. Adding an amendment that favors natural gas over other types of energy to the constitution is unnecessary and short-sighted. It also would favor the natural gas industry over the health of Coloradans.

We encourage voters to vote NO on Amendment 82 Colorado Right to Purchase and Sell Natural Gas for Heating and Cooking. To put it simply, this does not belong in the Constitution, and the ability to use natural gas is not prohibited nor has anyone suggested it be at the legislature. This is unnecessary and prohibits our state from moving nimbly as the energy environment changes.