DENVER — Today, two Democrats in the Colorado House of Representatives joined Republican colleagues to defeat legislation that would have had a devastating effect on the state’s energy industry.

House Bill 1355, sponsored by Rep. Mike Foote, D-Lafayette and Rep. Su Ryden, D-Aurora would have uprooted decades of existing laws regarding governmental authority over Colorado’s energy developers.

The measure faced bipartisan opposition as Governor John Hickenlooper joined conservatives across the state legislature in voicing his opposition to the matter. The bill’s liberal sponsors paid no mind to this in their efforts to push their legislation through the Democrat-controlled chamber.

Today, Rep. Paul Rosenthal, D-Denver, and Rep. Ed Vigil, D-Ft. Garland, broke ranks with their Democrat colleagues and joined forces with House conservatives to finally defeat the measure.
Kelly Maher, executive director of Compass Colorado, expressed pleasant surprise with today’s developments:

“It is heartening to see a rare moment of fiscal and regulatory sanity from the left. The demise of this bill reflects bipartisan understanding of the importance of Colorado’s energy industry on the state economy. 

“While a handful of liberals will stop at nothing to run Colorado’s businesses into the ground, we should applaud those who refuse to serve as robotic yes-men to the environmental fringe.”

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