Colorado’s War on Weld: How Polis and Progressives Are Gutting Rural Energy

This latest entry in the “Rural Reckoning” series by Colorado Politics drills right into the busted backbone of Colorado’s energy policy. David O. Williams reports from the frontlines of Colorado’s rural-urban divide, where ranchers, oil field workers, and coal-fired plant workers are getting tossed aside in favor of a dreamy green future. The piece highlights the voices of rural lawmakers like Ty Winter, who argue that this “just transition” to renewables is about as “just” as a punch to the gut, especially for counties like Weld, which fuel, feed, and prop up the entire damn state, and by extension, the world.

The story traces the fallout from Senate Bill 181, Governor Polis’ legislative end-run around the public’s rejection of Prop 112. It explores how the shift to renewable energy is crushing rural economies without providing replacements, and how even Democratic lawmakers are joining bipartisan efforts to at least include nuclear energy in Colorado’s “clean” portfolio. But the overarching theme? Rural Colorado gets the shaft, again.

The Bullet Point Brief

• Polis Played Bait-and-Switch: Voters said “hell no” to Prop 112’s drilling setbacks, so Polis and his pals just passed SB 181 and did it anyway. Democracy? Optional.
• Weld County’s Wreckage: The legislature keeps kneecapping the industries that power Colorado. Oil, gas, coal, and ag aren’t just livelihoods, they’re lifelines. Weld County’s been in the crosshairs since Polis ascended to the throne in 2019.
• Energy Transition or Rural Eulogy? They’re gutting oil, gas, and coal with no replacement jobs. “Just Transition” is now code for “Government Dependency Program.”
• The Dirty Little Secret: Farming in Weld runs on two things, sunlight above and royalties below. Kill oil and gas, and you cripple agriculture. Hope Whole Foods stocks dreams.
• Bipartisanship… from Desperation: Nuclear finally makes the “clean” cut, thanks to an unlikely alliance between Republicans and Democrats. Because even blue districts are tired of playing energy roulette.

My Bottom Line

I have consistently praised the Rural Reckoning series because it finally gives a voice to the concerns rural Colorado has been shouting into the void for years. This installment may center on my friend, Rep. Ty Winter, and some of my brothers in counties to the south, but it describes a reality that is deeply personal to me and to Weld County.

I was Mayor of Johnstown when Proposition 112 was on the ballot. I helped launch “Mayors Against Prop 112,” a coalition of more than 50 mayors standing up for local economies and energy workers. We beat that proposition soundly. And then we watched, in stunned disbelief, as the Polis administration pushed through Senate Bill 181 anyway, delivering by legislation what voters had just rejected.

That was when the wound opened.

Since then, nearly every legislative and regulatory move has targeted what Weld County does best: producing energy and growing food. We are the number one county in the state for oil, gas, renewables, and agriculture. Yet instead of being celebrated or supported, we are treated like a problem to be solved.

What few outside rural Colorado seem to understand is that oil and gas royalties subsidize farming. Many farmers in Weld rely on what lies beneath the soil to fund what grows above it. You kill energy, and agriculture bleeds with it.

This series confirms what we have known all along: the urban-rural divide is not imagined. It is institutionalized. And until our lawmakers respect all of Colorado, not just the 10 square miles surrounding the Capitol dome, we will continue to fight for survival in the places that power the state.

You want to talk about equity, Governor Polis? Let’s start with the people who keep your lights on and your fridge full. This isn’t about climate denial; it’s about economic survival. Rural Colorado is not your sacrificial lamb in some performative eco-makeover. You’re not transitioning us, you’re abandoning us. Weld County feeds your face and fuels your fancy Teslas. And every regulation, every job-killing bill you sign from your downtown Denver throne makes it clearer: you don’t give a damn about the people keeping this state running. You think you’re building the future? You’re just bulldozing the present.