While lobbyists have always been a fairly regular fixture at the Colorado General Assembly, there have been moments in Colorado history when their presence wasn’t appreciated. Late January 1957 was one of those moments.
Improvements in transmission technology had made power generation using natural gas a more economic and feasible option following World War II. The 1950s also saw a rise in the production of natural gas in the Denver Basin, adding to the existing natural gas developments on the Western Slope.
These factors led to a rise in interest from municipalities in pursuing natural gas power plants for their citizens. But an issue arose when Rocky Ford attempted to build one. According to a Rocky Mountain News article from the time, the Colorado Supreme Court’s interpretation of laws on the books prior to the natural gas era led to the denial of the municipality’s attempt to build a natural gas plant.
To rectify this, Sen. James Donnely introduced a bill that would allow cities to build natural gas plants. It didn’t take long for the bill to catch the attention of the utilities lobby.
On the day of the bill’s second reading, the utilities lobby pressured senators to delay the bill. According to the Rocky Mountain News, at least one lawmaker, Sen. George Brown, received a threat of political reprisal.
The Senate’s Majority Leader, Sen. Sam Taylor, called it a “bad way to lobby.” Sen. Roy McVicker noted that the efforts likely backfired on the lobbyists, and he told the Rocky Mountain News that the bill likely would have failed without the “resentment” of some of the senators.
It passed the upper chamber with a 19-15 vote, but a utilities lobbyist, William Lloyd, vowed to continue the fight against the bill when it went to Colorado’s House of Representatives.
Despite the furor caused by the lobbying efforts, the industry still received some of the amendments it wished for. According to the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado’s lower chamber passed a completely rewritten version of the bill addressing the industry’s concerns. Colorado municipalities received the right to build natural gas plants, and utilities received an arbitration board to provide fair value to privately owned gas plants that municipalities wanted to take over.
Gov. Stephen McNichols signed the bill into law shortly after, clearing the way for Colorado municipalities to pursue natural gas development.