Endorsing Organizations

Endorse the ballot initiative

Resilient Denver  |  Weise Consulting  |  SmogFree Denver

Unite North Metro Denver  |  Fort Collins Sustainability Group  |  San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council

Estes Valley Clean Energy Coalition  |  Center for Biological Diversity  |  Save the Aurora Reservoir 

Together Against Neighborhood Drilling  |  Wind and Solar Denver | The Alliance for Collective Action: Coalition for a Regenerative Future

Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center |  Honeycomb Strategies  | Energy Should Be |  Karen Wagner, former Larimer County Commissioner

Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate, with 43 member organizations


Quotes from endorsers


Renée Millard-Chacon  Womxn from the Mountain, Commerce City Council Womxn

“Our window to protect future generations is open now to act with justice and accountability to address environmental racism and heal our Biosphere.”


Jamie Valdez  Colorado Community Organizer, Mothers Out Front

“The continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels contributes to climate change, environmental degradation, and impacts on the health of families throughout Colorado.

Mothers Out Front-Colorado is proud to support this initiative because it seeks to protect our air, water, and land as well as the health and safety of our children and families while also providing assistance to the workers and communities likely to be most affected by phasing out new permits for oil & gas development.

It’s time we prioritize our communities and future generations by working toward a just transition to renewable energy sources and a livable climate for all!”


Patricia Garcia-Nelson  Patricia Garcia-Nelson, one of the designated representatives of the ballot initiative campaign, became concerned about fracking after learning that a large fracking operation had been moved from a more affluent school to within a few hundred feet of the playground at her child’s school in Greeley. She and many of her community members have spoken up to try to stop the oil and gas extraction, especially after air monitoring by the school showed numerous spikes of carcinogenic benzene, but so far, their efforts have been unsuccessful.

“Time is running out to make meaningful change, we are taking action as an act of survival,” said Garcia-Nelson. “We have a responsibility to protect our water, land, and air. Our children and future generations deserve a Colorado where they can thrive. A phase out of oil & gas permitting will protect our communities and prevent further harm. We cannot be afraid of a fossil fuel free future.”

Bill McKibben   Author and founder of 350.org

“Safe & Healthy Colorado’s initiative to phase out new oil and gas permits by 2030 is exactly the kind of action needed to heed the call of scientists around the world telling us we must rapidly transition off fossil fuels to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C! I encourage everyone to pitch in and support this historic effort.”

"The science is clear. If we want a livable planet, we must stop producing and burning fossil fuels. Workers and communities should be helped with the transition, but we can no longer pollute our air and threaten the livability of the planet for future generations."

— Leslie Glustrom, Clean Energy Action

Dar-Lon Chang  Dar-Lon is an ex-oil and gas researcher currently transitioning to a clean energy career as a Director of the startup company, GeoSolar Technologies, for renovating and building net-zero, all-electric homes and buildings.

“I was a research engineer for ExxonMobil from 2003 to 2019, and I quit because I was not seeing a good faith effort to help an energy transition away from limited and dangerous fossil fuels.

Instead, management was focusing the skills and talents of my colleagues and me on locking the world into dependence on fossil fuels for several decades when hard evidence indicates that fossil fuels would become unaffordable not only in price and health impacts in those decades but also in consequences from a runaway climate crisis.

Moreover, ExxonMobil was leading the oil and gas industry in misleading the public and policymakers with disinformation contrary to its own internal findings about the devastating consequences of the continued growth of fossil fuel use.

I know from personal experience that fossil fuel companies will resist, obstruct, and fight the necessary transition to a clean, renewable energy future. Knowing this, I believe that policy is urgently needed to transition oil and gas workers to clean energy jobs while phasing out new oil and gas permits by 2030.”


Scott Simmons  Climate Reality Project NoCo

“My daughter cannot play outside at my house due to the close proximity of fracking — enough is enough — stop this fracking!”


Heidi Leathwood   Heidi is a Climate Policy Analyst with 350 Colorado, a 2nd career begun partly as a result of unsuccessful efforts to protect her mother's Greeley neighborhood from residential fracking.

“Colorado can be a leader in a clean energy economy, and we can clean up our air and water, but we can’t do that while continuing to give out thousands of new oil and gas permits. We’re producing far more oil and gas than we need here in state, giving massive profits to oil and gas companies while they make us pay with our health and environment. This ballot initiative is a chance for the public to take control and move our state toward the clean energy future we deserve.”


Olga Gonzalez  Executive Director, Cultivando

“Our children should not be sacrificed for the sake of cheaper gasoline.


Moshe Kornfeld Colorado Jewish Climate Action

“We are in the midst of an existential planetary crisis that requires us to keep carbon in the ground. We at Colorado Jewish Climate Action are inspired by Jewish tradition that demands that we engage in tikkun olam, in actions that repair the world. This ballot initiative leverages the people’s power to do the bold, sacred, and absolutely necessary work we need to do in order to create a just and livable future.”

"What I want for my kids, for all of our kids, is clean air, clean water and a thriving future on a livable planet. To make this dream a reality, and for Colorado to continue leading in the green economy, we need to say goodbye to 20th century energy production. This ballot initiative is a step toward the future that Coloradans need and that our kids deserve."

— Kate Christensen, Together Against Neighborhood Drilling

Paul Culnan  Paul is a retired computer programmer living in Boulder, CO, who has become increasingly active over the last decade in promoting climate solutions. He has testified before the PUC, AQCC, APCD, Boulder City Council, and the General Assembly.

“I know that climate scientists and the IPCC have been informing us for decades that we need to stop burning fossil fuels, and the message has only become clearer each year. Every fraction of a degree of heating matters. The fossil fuel industry has a grip on our society in order to make incredible amounts of money while, as a direct result, people are suffering and dying from the pollution and GHG emissions of extracting, processing, and burning of fossil fuels. This is a systemic problem that needs systemic solutions. Phasing out of new permitting of O&G operations by 2030 is essential.”


Jeremy Nichols   Climate and Energy Program Director, WildEarth Guardians

“It’s a simple truth that we can’t safeguard our climate while still allowing unchecked fossil fuel extraction. While Colorado has led the charge to reduce greenhouse gases, unfortunately this progress has been tarnished by the state’s unwillingness to confront the oil and gas industry. This initiative reflects the reality that we have to rein in drilling and fracking to truly reduce greenhouse gases, protect people and communities, and defend our future generations.”

Amy Grey  Senior Climate Finance Strategist at Stand.earth

“This ballot initiative is vitally important, especially in our commitment to climate justice. Structural racism and systemic inequalities are woven throughout the climate emergency, and people who bear the greatest toxic burdens are low-income communities and communities of color. Our planet just cannot afford any more stalling tactics, frontline communities just can’t wait. Colorado will set the standard with this and become a beacon of hope for our planet.”

“The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that the world must rapidly move away from 'fossil fuels — the number one cause of the climate crisis.,' in part by reducing methane emissions by at least "a third." The health effects of methane fracking include cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, birth defects, and more We must formally transition away from fossil fuels and fracking immediately.”

— Harv Teitelbaum, PSR-Colorado Board Co-chair

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