Vote NO on Amendment 82: No Pollution in Colorado's Constitution

Would you put the "right" to drive a horse and buggy in the Colorado Constitution?

How about the "right" to use an outhouse instead of a proper septic or sewage system?

Times change, and technology advances. But this year, big corporate polluters and the right-wing "stink tank" Advance Colorado came up with a silly idea to put a so-called "right to natural gas" in the state constitution.

Get the facts and tell your friends to vote NO on Amendment 82.

For some politicians and the lobbyists who love them, natural gas isn't a tool. It's a religion. That's the only way to explain the kind of religious devotion that corporate polluters expect from the voting public and politicians from Denver to D.C.

For generations, we've been piping dirty, dangerous natural gas to residences. But in the future, consumers won't need natural gas piped to homes at all. Experts agree that the future is clean electricity delivered from a variety of renewable sources — or produced by you right at home with your own solar and wind power.

But if Amendment 82 passes, Colorado would be required to maintain dirty, dangerous natural gas pipes to residential neighborhoods forever, even after natural gas is totally obsolete. Amendment 82 isn't fixing any real problem; it simply locks special protections for one industry into the state constitution.

Perhaps the worst part of Amendment 82 is how it could tie the hands of local governments trying to protect their communities. If passed, Amendment 82 would give polluters a new argument to bypass local regulations that protect clean air and water supplies.

In his recent column, conservative Ari Armstrong wrote, "Imagine if, late in the 1800s, Coloradans had enshrined in the constitution a 'right' to purchase covered wagons, even if in the future no one wanted to sell them. Would we today have a state-funded wagon store collecting dust to ensure compliance?" [1]

Once it's in the constitution, it's almost impossible to change. Putting a "right" to natural gas in the constitution makes no sense for consumers, only big corporate special interests. When cheap renewable electricity makes natural gas obsolete in a few years, it's the next generation of voters who will have to undo this silly, short-sighted mistake.

That's why we're urging Colorado voters to reject Amendment 82 at the polls this November. Visit the NO on 82 website, get the facts, and join the growing coalition to help stop this bad idea today.

Thanks for your help keeping Colorado on course to a clean energy future.

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