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Colorado is giving the world’s most profitable industry a $300 million handout. But with more than 37,000 active oil and gas wells in Colorado, a booming industry, and growing profits, Environment Colorado believes it’s high time we end this outdated subsidy and reinvest it in Colorado’s future beginning this November. Because once the oil and gas is gone, so are the jobs and the benefits to Colorado’s economy that industry lays claim to.

How You Can Help

Enough is enough.

Environment Colorado is working to pass Amendment 58, the “A Smarter Colorado” initiative which will end the $300 million tax subsidy and free funding for investment in the Colorado Promise Scholarship Fund, clean energy projects, protecting wild spaces and wildlife habitats, and offset the environmental impacts of oil and gas development.

Sign our Pledge of Support to vote for Amendment 58, the “A Smarter Colorado” initiative, on November 4 and then help us get the word out to your friends, family and coworkers. Click here.

Background

In the 1970s, Colorado leaders thought the oil and gas industry in our state needed a leg up. The industry was experiencing another bust in Colorado due to lower prices. At the time, leaders thought it was a good idea to set into play a tax break that would help this struggling industry regain its footing. And take hold it did. Today, there are over 37,000 active drilling wells in Colorado, and that number is expected to grow to 120,000 over the next 30 years. What once seemed like a reasonable tax incentive has turned into a $300 million annual handout to the oil and gas industry.

But the oil and gas boom is a big bust for Colorado’s wild lands, wildlife, communities and public health. Once the oil and gas is gone, so are the jobs and benefits to Colorado’s economy that industry lays claim to. And we’ll be left to clean up the environmental damage that drilling leaves behind.

The initiative for “A Smarter Colorado” will end the tax subsidy and will free funding for investment in: protecting open spaces, ensuring a skilled workforce and creating a more sustainable economy that can survive when all the oil and gas wells have dried up.

The $300 million would be reinvested in:

• 10 percent for clean energy projects and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels;

• 15 percent towards preserving open spaces and wildlife habitats;

• 15 percent to help local communities minimize the environmental damage that drilling leaves behind; and

• 60 percent for the Colorado Promise Scholarship Fund.

Oil and gas companies will fight hard to keep their corporate handout. But Environment Colorado, with the help of voters like you will, will be working hard to ensure that we invest in a smarter Colorado and not in oil this