Colorado Politics: Industry Power Continues to Distort State Policy

Lee Drutman wrote for the International Business Times about oil and gas industry influence on Colorado state politics: 

The oil and gas industry had a problem in the state of Colorado. Earlier this year, Democrats used their 37-to-28 majority in the Colorado House of Representatives to pass legislation unfavorable to the oil and gas industry. Specifically, the bill required “oil and gas production facilities and wells” to be located at least 1,000 feet from the edge of school property and other high-occupancy buildings.

The state Senate voted on the legislation last week. On the day state senators began considering legislation, state documents reviewed by International Business Times shows a wealthy oil and gas board member wrote a check for $40,000 to the Colorado Republican Party’s super PAC. The donation was unsurpassed in generosity, from an industry that gave Colorado Republican senators almost three-quarters of a million dollars in their 2016 campaign.

Republicans used their one-seat majority to kill the proposed drilling safety legislation. Given that two Coloradans were killed last month when a well exploded 170 feet from their home, and a University of Colorado study had just found a possible connection between acute lymphocytic leukemia and nearby oil and gas activity, the trade-off between human safety risk and fundraising risk couldn’t have been starker.