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Federal Judge Says Colorado Health Officials Not Liable in Gas Stove Label Fight
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Federal Judge Says Colorado Health Officials Not Liable in Gas Stove Label Fight

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics A federal judge last week dismissed the constitutional claim against leaders of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment over a 2025 law requiring health disclosures on new gas-fueled stoves. In June, Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 1161 into law, which requires retailers of gas stoves to affix a “yellow adhesive label” that reads “UNDERSTAND THE AIR QUALITY IMPLICATIONS OF HAVING AN INDOOR GAS STOVE.” The label must also include a URL or QR code to a webpage created by the health department that provides “credible, evidence-based information on the health impacts of gas-fueled stoves.” The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers filed a complaint asserting a single First Amendment vi...
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New PUC Rules Push State Toward Natural Gas Phase-Out and Rising Utility Bills
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The Independence Institute, Approved, State

New PUC Rules Push State Toward Natural Gas Phase-Out and Rising Utility Bills

By Jake Fogleman | The Independence Institute The regulatory noose around Colorado’s natural gas utilities just got a whole lot tighter, and captive ratepayers stand to bear the brunt of the economic pain. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on Monday issued a formal decision updating the state’s emissions targets under its first-in-the-nation “clean heat plan” law. The decision established by rule that Colorado gas utilities must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 41 percent compared to 2015 levels by 2035, expanding upon the existing 22 percent by 2030 target set in statute. Furthermore, the commission opted to go beyond what the underlying statute required by flirting with a total phase-out of natural gas. Despite claiming it was not setting any fur...
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“The DOJ can take a hike”: Jena Griswold rejects federal demand for voter data
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

“The DOJ can take a hike”: Jena Griswold rejects federal demand for voter data

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold escalated her standoff with the Trump administration this week, rejecting a request for the state’s full, unredacted voter file. “We will not comply with the Trump Department of Justice’s request for Coloradans’ sensitive voting information. The DOJ can take a hike; it does not have a legal right to the information. Colorado will not help Donald Trump undermine our elections and hurt the American people.” On December 1, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division asked the state to enter an agreement to share complete voter data, including names, dates of birth, residential addresses and full driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Griswold said she provided only the publ...
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60% of Colorado Voters Say Public Schools Are Off Track Despite Record Spending
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

60% of Colorado Voters Say Public Schools Are Off Track Despite Record Spending

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Most Coloradans believe the state’s public education system is in serious need of improvement, according to a recent Magellan Strategies survey . Meanwhile, the minority of respondents who view the state’s public educational system favorably praised teachers and noted improved outcomes. The survey, conducted by Magellan Strategies, collected responses from more than 1,000 voters across the political, economic, and demographic spectrum. Participants were asked questions about their views on the state’s public education system – from universal preschool to publicly funded colleges and universities. Nearly 60% of respondents said they believed the state’s public education system was headed in the wrong direction. W...
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Federal Court Opens Records in Colorado Dispute Over Gender Treatment Inquiry
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Federal Court Opens Records in Colorado Dispute Over Gender Treatment Inquiry

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics A federal judge ordered last month that the public be able to access the filings in Children’s Hospital Colorado’s legal challenge to a U.S. Department of Justice subpoena seeking a broad range of documents about patients, employees and communications. Children’s Colorado sought to keep its case shielded from public view, arguing that disclosing the details of the Justice Department’s request would traumatize patients and providers who work with puberty blockers and hormone treatments — the subject of the government’s request for documents. But in a Nov. 17 order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cyrus Y. Chung noted the subpoena’s existence and the nature of services Children’s Colorado provides were already matters of public record. ...
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State Regulators Move Colorado Toward All-Electric Heating by 2050 at Any Cost
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

State Regulators Move Colorado Toward All-Electric Heating by 2050 at Any Cost

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun Xcel and other utilities must make 41% cuts to natural gas heating emissions in 10 years, transition fully by 2050. Colorado officials are making another major push toward electrification of home heating and deep cuts to carbon from natural gas, despite consumer cost concerns and the Trump administration’s attempt to revive the use of fossil fuels.The Public Utilities Commission on Monday finalized a state Clean Heat framework requiring Xcel and other utilities supplying natural gas for home and building heating to cut the carbon emissions from their systems by 41% in 10 years. The utilities are expected to reach 100% decarbonization of building heating by 2050, an ambitious goal celebrated by the environmental and clean energy groups who had...
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Clerks vs. the Constitution: Why the CCCA’s Letter to Polis Gets It Wrong
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Clerks vs. the Constitution: Why the CCCA’s Letter to Polis Gets It Wrong

By A.L. Goodwin | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The Colorado County Clerks Association (CCCA) sent a letter urging Governor Polis to block the potential transfer of Tina Peters to federal custody. That request rests on unconstitutional assumptions and a series of demonstrably false claims—many of which CCCA Director Matt Crane repeated in his November 24, 2025 interview on 710 KNUS, spread across two morning segments — Let My Tina Go! and Should Tina Peters Be Pardoned? 1. Matt Crane falsely asserted that Tina was a flight risk and should not be out on bond pending appeal. “Tina certainly demonstrated before that she's a flight risk, right? So after the cyber symposium, in 2021 where she went and, you know, hid out … she was gone for at least a month after tha...
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Inside the story Colorado rarely hears: Trauma, transition and the path back to truth
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Inside the story Colorado rarely hears: Trauma, transition and the path back to truth

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice “It took me almost two decades to realize the error,” Antoinette De La Cruz told a Fort Collins audience on November 20. “Transitioning didn’t fix anything. It delayed the inevitable. Healing.” It was the first time many Coloradans had heard a detransitioner describe her path into transition, what it cost her and what brought her back. Read RMV’s reporting on the event here. Here she shared the fuller account of her story. Where it began De La Cruz said her transition began long before hormones or surgery. “I learned very young as a little girl that I was not valued as a woman, and I definitely was not safe as one,” she said. When she was seventeen she met someone who told her she could become a man. “I had no idea you could even do ...
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Colorado theft crisis: More crime, fewer inmates, and mounting economic fallout
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado theft crisis: More crime, fewer inmates, and mounting economic fallout

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A Growing Problem That Stores Can’t Ignore Ask almost any retailer in Colorado what’s changed over the last few years, and you’ll hear some version of the same thing: theft isn’t a once-in-a-while headache anymore. It’s constant. The Common Sense Institute recently put numbers to what stores have been describing, and the scale is hard to miss. Police logged just over 27,000 shoplifting reports in 2024 — a jump of more than 22 percent in a single year. And that figure doesn’t capture most of what’s happening. Many stores no longer call police unless something turns aggressive. CSI cites national surveys suggesting that as much as nine in ten retail thefts never make it into official police statistics. If that holds true...
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Rep. Gabe Evans is a Colorado Energy Champion
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Rep. Gabe Evans is a Colorado Energy Champion

By Hunter Rivera | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice As the seventh-largest energy-producing state in the nation, Colorado has established itself as a leader in not only traditional energy, but renewable and next-generation sources as well. That’s why new, all-of-the-above energy legislation moving through Congress is so important for the Centennial State. Just last week, the House Natural Resources Committee advanced the SPEED Act, a bipartisan perm​​itting reform bill that would remove barriers to energy development and deployment. Before it comes to the House floor for a vote, the Energy & Commerce Committee will offer its own contributions to the legislative package. As a member of that important committee and the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, our represent...
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