People Over Polluters: Pushing Back Against Oil & Gas Extraction in Colorado

350 Colorado is launching a new campaign:

People Over Polluters!

To rein in oil and gas pollution in Colorado, 350 Colorado has a “one-two punch” strategy this year:

1) sophisticated communications to educate and activate Coloradans across the state about the true costs of oil and gas extraction, and

2) legal action to ensure the State of Colorado and the oil & gas operators are meeting applicable Clean Air Act legal requirements under state and federal law.

On this page you can “Learn More” about these two strategies below and be sure to check out the “Upcoming Events” listed below to engage with these strategies and how you can support this important work! 350 Colorado’s work is grassroots people powered! And that means grassroots volunteering and donations are critical to sustaining our action. 

Donate Now!

Get Involved!

Campaign Events!

    • Safe & Healthy Colorado Communications Committee Meeting!
      • April meeting: Wednesday, April 30th, 5-6pm on Zoom.  RSVP link coming soon!
      • The Safe & Healthy Colorado Coalition is working to stop fracking expansion in Colorado. To help power our grassroots communication efforts, we’re looking for volunteers with a wide variety of skill sets, including:

        🎨 Graphic Design
        📝 Op-Ed & Blog Writing
        📢 Social Media Management
        📷 Photography & Video Editing
        📣 Press & Media Outreach

No experience? No problem! If you’re passionate about climate action and want to make a difference, we’d love to have you on board.

    • May 3rd – Fracking & Pollution Action Tour!
      • Join 350 Colorado and our partners at Earthworks for a firsthand tour of fracking activity and its many negative impacts in the Firestone & Frederick area of Colorado. Participants will learn about and use infrared technology to observe oil & gas fracking equipment and infrastructure including any uncontrolled pollution we may find during the tour. We will also learn about the limitations and challenges of meaningful regulation by our state and local governments – and how we can advocate to curtail and hold accountable oil & gas fracking in Colorado! Spots are limited – RSVP here!
      • By using the technology and field expertise of Earthworks and the movement building power of 350 Colorado, this Action Tour will give participants a chance to not only experience the issues, but to take meaningful action together with other concerned activists and community members, forming a stronger climate movement in the Firestone & Frederick area and beyond!

Learn More!

The State of Colorado ranks 4th and 7th in the nation for oil and gas production, respectively, making our state a major contributor to the climate crisis. Despite significant legislative and regulatory changes in recent years meant to address environmental and health impacts, the oil & gas industry is still the #1 source of greenhouse gas emissions in Colorado and the #1 source in Colorado contributing to our severe ground-level ozone pollution problem.  Despite significant legislative and regulatory changes in recent years meant to address environmental and health impacts, the rate of extraction has not slowed; there are currently over 48,000 oil & gas wells active in CO, and now the industry is planning significant expansion into the population centers of CO’s Front Range, with the majority of new drilling planned within disproportionately impacted communities (DICs).

350 Colorado (350CO) is the largest Colorado-based grassroots organization working to build the local movement to solve the climate crisis and transition to a sustainable future. Since our founding in 2013, we have focused on keeping fossil fuels in the ground and uplifting climate solutions through grassroots advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels. We needed funding for 2 new and essential components of our 2025 Strategic Plan to rein in the oil & gas industry: our legal strategy and our communications strategy.

350CO is uniquely positioned to undertake this work because of our experience as a leader in the anti-fracking movement for over 10 years, organizing both coalition campaigns and in frontline communities across the state, and advocating to reduce air and climate pollution from oil & gas extraction and transition Colorado to a renewable energy future.

More about the Legal Strategy

To abate harm and shift the financial burden of the industry’s pollution from the public to the corporations that profit from the extraction, oil & gas operations must be held accountable to the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA). Under the CAA, qualifying oil & gas facilities must obtain and comply with a “Title V” air pollution permit. The State must issue Title V permits to ensure compliance with all applicable requirements of the CAA. This system is currently not working in Colorado like it should. There is a significant need to improve both the legal sufficiency and consistency of Title V permits for oil & gas facilities written by the CO Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), as well as compliance with those permits by the industry. 

While we continue efforts to pass stronger legislation and regulations, expanding our strategy to enforce existing air pollution laws opens a different path forward for our goals to reduce air pollution and climate impacts. Through engaging in legal action, we have the opportunity to greatly improve CO’s implementation of the CAA to control oil & gas pollution and set a replicable example for other oil & gas-producing states to follow.

350 Colorado will work together with our allies at The Center for Biological Diversity who are experienced in Clean Air Act enforcement work in the intermountain west. 350CO has a CO licensed staff attorney and a student law clerk on board ready to tackle this work. Our focus will be enforcement of CAA Title V to ensure CDPHE and the oil & gas operators are meeting all applicable legal requirements under state and federal law. Through formal petitions and citizen suits, we aim to win concessions from the industry, force administrative action from the State to curtail pollution, and build a powerful public narrative exposing the illegal pollution and true costs of oil & gas extraction in CO. This is a critical time to address oil & gas air and climate pollution through every lever available, and that should include the powerful lever of enforcing Title V of the CAA to reduce and prevent harm to public health and safety.

More about the Public Education and Communications Strategy

While Coloradans and our environment continue to suffer the increasing burden of the public health, economic, air, water, and climate harms caused by oil and gas extraction in our state, far too few Coloradans are aware of the facts and engaged on the issue. In order to achieve meaningful policy change in Colorado to rein in oil & gas pollution and other harms, we need to educate and activate a broader coalition of Coloradans. While we continue to organize and mobilize our base, it is clear we also need to reach beyond our existing movement to activate more Coloradans on an issue that profoundly affects us all. That’s why 350 Colorado is teaming up with the Safe & Healthy Colorado coalition campaign to stop fracking expansion in Colorado.  As a leading member of the Safe & Healthy Colorado Coalition, 350 Colorado is leading the charge to develop and fund a major communications campaign this year to push back against the onslaught of disinformation and misinformation coming from the oil & gas industry. 

Our focus will be on educating and activating diverse Coloradans in order to build power to achieve meaningful policy change to rein in the public health, economic, air, water, and climate harms caused by oil & gas extraction in Colorado. Through sophisticated and targeted multimedia communications tactics, we will reach Coloradans across the state with a powerful public narrative exposing the illegal pollution and true costs of oil & gas extraction in Colorado. 

The Communications Strategy is comprised of three main components:

1) investment in a communications staff serving both 350 Colorado and the Safe & Healthy Colorado coalition to produce communications products and coordinate communications distribution through our grassroots channels including email, social media, traditional media, and events;

2) recruiting and coordinating a broader grassroots coalition of organizations and individuals working together to produce communications content and amplify messaging, and providing micro “sub grants” to participating groups to sustain their contributions to the coalition communications campaign; and

3) hiring a top notch professional communications firm to develop and execute a professional communications strategy to super charge our efforts to push back against industry disinformation ads and stop the expansion of fracking in Colorado.

 

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