colorado

Our Children’s Trust has represented and supported young people in Colorado since 2011, including the climate lawsuit Martinez v. Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission and - most recently - a petition for rulemaking submitted to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) in November 2019 and the COGCC’s ongoing rulemaking to implement the mandates of Senate Bill 19-181.

The youth petitioners are represented by Nate Bellinger with Our Children’s Trust.

Current Status:

In November 2020, the COGCC finalized its rules that are intended to protect public health, safety, welfare, the environment, and wildlife resources from oil and gas development. In his closing remarks Chair Robbins acknowledged the contributions of the Colorado youth OCT represented in the rulemaking: "I as Chair and the Commission as a whole thanks the Our Children’s Trust petitioners for their sincere thoughtful and passionate petition, their pleadings and their presentations in this rulemaking. . . . We hope you will stay engaged and work with us as we implement these rules to protect public health, safety, welfare, the environment, and wildlife resources."

While the COGCC's final rules did include some of the requests made by Earth Guardians and Our Children's Trust to better quantify GHG emissions attributable to Colorado's oil and gas sector, unfortunately, the final rules fail to require adequate reductions in GHG emissions from the oil and gas industry. Our Children's Trust is continuing to work with Colorado youth to ensure that the state fulfills its legal obligations to protect their health and the environment and reduces its GHG emissions to levels consistent with the best available science.