AURORA, Colo. — Amendment 82 is on Colorado's November ballot. The measure would give consumers the right to purchase natural gas and distributors the right to sell it to homes and businesses.
The proposal has drawn support from energy advocates who say it protects affordability and choice for Coloradans. Opponents — including community members and legal experts — warn it could override local government authority and open the door for corporate developers to bypass communities.
Andrew Pinkowitz, a Centennial resident, said his concerns start close to home.
Watch Ethan's report breaking down Amendment 82 below:
"I'm a dad to a soon-to-be three-year-old. Every day, I'm thinking about his future and the future of his classmates," Pinkowitz said.
Pinkowitz lives 10 minutes from an Aurora neighborhood where a data center has been proposed. He said data centers often use natural gas and believes Amendment 82 could allow developers to circumvent local decision-making.
"This could effectively override their decision-making and supersede that, and really give data center developers carte blanche to develop fields right next to homes," Pinkowitz said.
K.K. DuVivier, a professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, said Colorado would be in uncharted legal territory if the measure passes.
"It would be unique in the whole country to create a constitutional right to use natural gas," DuVivier said.
She said enshrining that right in the state constitution would have sweeping consequences for existing oversight structures.
"Once something's in the Constitution, then it basically trumps state statutes, any state agency regulations, any local government control," DuVivier said.
She also raised concerns about what the amendment would — and would not — prioritize.
"We don't even have... a constitutional right to clean air or clean water or anything like that that we really value," DuVivier said.
Kit Pfeiffer, president of the Energy Freedom Alliance of the Rockies, supports the amendment. He said natural gas access for Colorado homes and businesses is already under threat.
"The state is actively trying to take away natural gas from people," Pfeiffer said.
Pfeiffer said he is concerned that Colorado's Clean Heat Plan would eventually force residents to replace gas appliances with electric ones — a cost he said most Coloradans cannot afford. He supports Amendment 82 as a safeguard against that outcome.
"It would cost the average Colorado household $1,100 a year to heat their home with electricity instead of natural gas," Pfeiffer said.
He said the stakes are significant, given how widely natural gas is relied on across the state.
"Natural gas is also how 70 to 75 percent of Coloradans heat their homes today," Pfeiffer said.
For Pinkowitz, the debate comes down to keeping decision-making power at the local level and out of the courts.
"What I'm really interested in is preserving those levels of government that we have for our local citizens to be heard on the air that they breathe, the water they drink, and the land use directly next to their neighborhoods," Pinkowitz said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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