Legislative Council Staff and the Office of Legislative Legal Services conducted a review and comment hearing on four proposed Colorado ballot initiatives concerning oil and gas liability and natural gas pipeline costs, raising constitutional concerns including ex post facto, contract impairment, and retroactivity. No votes were taken; proponents indicated they would revise all four initiatives in response to staff comments.
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Samantha Falco and Claire Haffner suggested that proponents either remove the definition of strict liability in subsection 3E or redirect it to Section 18-1-502, Colorado Revised Statutes, the criminal code definition. Martha Tierney declined, stating the proposed initiative's definition is not the same as the criminal code definition and that proponents need a definition limited to that section, adding that section-specific definitions occur in Colorado statutes. Staff noted that the suggestions are recommendations that proponents are free to accept or decline.
“We are going to make a change in response and remove some of those terms because we think that if we leave oil and gas operator which is, in Carmen parlance, defined in statute and defined in commission rules that that would cover what we intend to cover. So we'll be taking out owner and producer because including is interpreted to mean including but not limited to.”
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Sign in to subscribeOkay, we'll just keep going. And if I have to repeat this for the next one, I will do that. Okay. Well, this is a public meeting, and the members of the public are free to be here and listen in the purposes, not to hear from members of the public, but to hear from the designated representatives of the proponents of the initiative and the council. The other persons are not permitted to comment. Our first objective is to be sure we understand your intent and your objectives in proposing the law or amendment. We hope that the statements and questions contained in our memorandum will provide a basis for discussion and understanding of your proposal. There will be multiple memos as I discussed, but today we will begin by reading the purposes as stated in the memorandum dated March 27, 2026. Okay, so we will. Or one more comment. The proposed initiative 2025, 2026, 310 was submitted by the same designated representatives as a part of a group of related proposed initiatives, including proposed initiatives 25, 26, 11 through 12 through 13. The comments and questions raised in this memorandum do not include in comment, include comments and…
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