Colorado voters likely reject Amendment 82’s constitutional right to buy natural gas

Tuesday night, Colorado voters appeared to send a clear message about the state’s energy future: they do not want a constitutional right to natural gas. Amendment 82, the ballot measure that would have enshrined the right to buy and sell natural gas in the Colorado constitution, was headed for defeat as vote counting continued, CPR News reported. Because the proposal was a constitutional amendment, it needed 55% approval to pass — a threshold it was not approaching.

The result lands as a setback for Advance Colorado, the conservative advocacy group behind the measure, and a win for environmental advocates who spent heavily to argue that the amendment would have handcuffed the state’s climate agenda. It was one of 14 statewide ballot questions on the 2026 midterm ballot.

The 55% Bar and a First-of-Its-Kind Fight

If passed, Amendment 82 would have been the first measure of its kind in any state, creating a constitutional foothold that supporters hoped would let them challenge Colorado’s climate policies limiting natural gas — also known as methane, a potent greenhouse gas responsible for a large share of global temperature rise.

Colorado Amendment 82: Constitutional Right to Purchase and Sell Natural Gas

Colorado’s existing climate laws require reductions in statewide greenhouse gas emissions, and some cities, including Denver, have already passed rules limiting gas-fired appliances in new commercial construction. Amendment 82’s backers argued those moves were an attack on a popular, widely used way to heat homes and generate electricity.

“Clearly, there’s been an effort by the PUC Public Utilities Commission and elected officials to go after natural gas,” said Michael Fields, Advance Colorado’s president, in a previous interview with CPR News.

Opponents framed the measure differently. They warned that a constitutional right to natural gas could be used in court to undermine the state’s ambitious climate targets and lead to more pollution at exactly the moment Colorado is trying to cut emissions.

Amendment 82: Do Coloradans need a constitutional right to natural gas?

Two Sides, Millions in Dark Money

Money flooded the fight, much of it from out-of-state groups that do not disclose their donors. The latest campaign finance reports, filed Oct. 14, showed Brighter Colorado, a group supporting Advance Colorado’s measures, had accepted more than $3.27 million — including large contributions from the Republican group GOPAC Election Fund. Opponents, organized through the “No Pollution in the Constitution” committee, had raised more than $3.34 million, with backing from big environmental groups like the Green Advocacy Project. Since those reports, both sides took in millions more.

Advance Colorado argued in a report that phasing out natural gas, as required under Colorado’s climate goals, would drive up energy bills.

“It is being sold as a way to lower utility costs, but in reality, it will have the opposite effect by allowing utility companies to raise rates to pay for new pipelines and other gas infrastructure for things like data centers,” said Megan Kemp, state legislative representative with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office.

What the Defeat Leaves Open

For now, Colorado’s climate policies stand untouched by any constitutional challenge of this kind. The state’s greenhouse gas reduction requirements remain in force, and Denver’s limits on gas-fired appliances in new commercial buildings are not facing the legal threat that a passed amendment would have created.

Advance Colorado has signaled that the Public Utilities Commission and elected officials have made an effort to ‘go after natural gas,’ even as its ballot measure appeared headed for defeat.