Colorado Amendment 82 Seeks Gas Rights

Colorado voters weighed a measure to constitutionally protect the right to buy and sell natural gas.

Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Utilities

Bold flat-color editorial illustration of a single tall red gas flame rising from a flat plain under a cream sky, with navy foothills in the distance. — Colorado voters weighed Amendment 82, a measure to constitutionally guarantee the right to buy and sell natural gas, as Boulder's electrification mandate became a flashpoint. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

Live Poll

Should Colorado constitutionally protect your right to buy natural gas for home heating and cooking?

Colorado Amendment 82, which seeks to enshrine a constitutional right to buy and sell natural gas, was on the 2026 Colorado ballot, with election night results published November 4. The measure would grant consumers the right to purchase natural gas for cooking and heating and distributors the right to sell it.

Why it matters

The amendment sets up a contest between statewide gas access and local efforts to curb natural gas use, such as Boulder's energy code requiring almost all new buildings to be electrically powered. Its outcome would determine whether gas access is protected in the state constitution, affecting how Colorado communities can regulate building energy choices.

Election night results for Amendment 82 were published November 4, 2026, but the extraction provides no vote tallies or margins. The measure's effect on utility regulation and local gas restrictions remains unquantified in the available facts.

The players

Advance Colorado

Advance Colorado is an action-based organization focused on reversing radical policies in Colorado, and it backs the amendment.

Conservation Colorado

Conservation Colorado is an environmental advocacy group that opposes the amendment, arguing it would block communities from holding the natural gas industry accountable.

Colorado Democratic Party

The Colorado Democratic Party is the state's Democratic political organization, and it opposes the amendment.

The details

Amendment 82 would grant Colorado consumers the right to purchase natural gas and distributors the right to sell it, and it is backed by the GOP and Advance Colorado. The Colorado Democratic Party opposes the measure, and Conservation Colorado argues it would use the state constitution to stop communities from holding the natural gas industry accountable.

November 3, 2026: Colorado voters cast ballots on Amendment 82.
November 4, 2026: Election night results for Amendment 82 were published.

Roadmap

Amendment 82 sets a statewide constitutional right to natural gas against Boulder's Energy Conservation Code, which mandates electric power for almost all new buildings. The clash places Colorado's local decarbonization rules in direct tension with a proposed state-level guarantee of gas access.

If Amendment 82 passes, Colorado households would have a constitutional right to buy natural gas for cooking and heating. If it fails, local governments like Boulder retain room to require electric construction in new buildings.

The takeaway

The amendment's outcome will indicate whether gas access or local electrification rules take priority in Colorado's energy policy. Readers following utility costs should track how the result shapes the state's natural gas and building-code landscape.