The League of Oil and Gas Impacted Citizens opposes Amendment 71, an initiative that would
require a certain percentage of signatures from each of Colorado’s 35 State Senate districts and
would require 55% approval from Colorado voters for proposed statutes and constitutional
amendments referred to the Colorado ballot. The proposed amendment could allow any single
State Senate district in Colorado to have veto power over proposed changes.
Currently, citizen proposed amendments and measures are required to get valid signatures
from 5% of the voters that voted in the last Secretary of State election. LOGIC members believe
prohibitive costs to gather signatures in all 35 senate districts could effectively bar amendments
to the constitution and deny the will of majority Colorado voters.
“Colorado has a proud history of participatory-citizen government that allow our voices to be
heard statewide,” said Wendy Highby, a Greeley resident and LOGIC board member.
“Amendment 71 undermines the grassroots participation of citizens by adding costs and
unreasonable barriers so that only special interests, like the oil and gas industry, could afford to promote constitutional amendments.”
“As LOGIC exists to ensure that Coloradans have a voice when it comes to oil and gas policies
across Colorado, in our opinion, Amendment 71 would disenfranchise impacted Coloradans,”
said Sara Loflin, LOGIC’s Executive Director. “We need to be able to elevate issues involved with
drilling in residential areas to a statewide discussion, not deter them.”
Proposed state initiatives, #75 that gave municipalities the ability to zone oil and gas facilities
and #78 that required 2500 setbacks from homes, failed to get enough valid signatures to be
placed on the 2016 ballot. Oil and gas interests raised over $10-million dollars to defeat those
measures have now switch many of those funds to support passing Amendment 71.
“With oil and gas funding backing Amendment 71, citizens living in the gas fields are suspicious
of their motives,” noted LOGIC member Leslie Robinson of Rifle, an area heavily impacted by drilling. “Especially, when we feel Amendment 71 is a continued attempt to eliminate citizens’ ability to have a say in oil and gas development in residential areas.”
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