If you thought your “no” vote on last year’s Proposition 112 would bring a halt to irresponsible attacks on Colorado’s energy providers, think again.

The radicals who lined up behind that failed ballot measure couldn’t care less what voters said; nor did they learn anything from the drubbing. They have a bill being ramrodded through the legislature now – Senate Bill 181 – that would do similar harm to Colorado’s energy sector, through equally radical means, and Coloradans ought to be alarmed and angered by what they’re trying to pull.

One column can’t possibly cover all the poison little pills this bill contains, so I’ll focus here on just one: the effort to hijack, politicize and weaponize our independent Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) by changing its mission from energy sector regulator to energy sector exterminator.

This is done by radically redefining the panel’s mission statement and makeup. SB-181 breaks with long practice by purging COGCC of energy industry expertise and experience, increasing the likelihood that it will regulate recklessly, either out of ignorance or malice. Currently, at least three of the nine commissioners must have industry experience. SB-181 drops that requirement to just one commissioner, then fills two of those slots with individuals who are highly likely to have an anti-energy bias, especially if they are appointed by this governor, who ran as an energy centrist but isn’t one.

Some apparently fear that COGCC will become the “captive” of industry if individuals with energy experience serve. But COGCC’s history proves that such fears are unfounded. By most accounts, Colorado has some of the strongest state oil and gas regulations in the land. Even our past two Democratic governors have said as much. How did that happen if COGCC, as currently configured, is the “captive” of industry?

Any suggestion that COGCC has been indifferent to health and safety concerns, or that COGCC puts such considerations second, is unfair and wrong in my opinion. It’s the phony premise on which all these radical changes are predicated.

Democrats want to turn COGCC into an energy oversight board that knows nothing about energy. Even worse, they want to pack the board with people very likely to have an anti-energy bias.

Would we purge health-care professionals from healthcare oversight boards, or farmers from agricultural oversight boards, or water managers from water boards? That would be foolish, right? They would be exercising oversight in complete ignorance. But that’s just what SB-181 proposes to do.

It’s not a COGCC takeover by industry, but a COGCC takeover by anti-energy extremists appointed by our very liberal governor, that Colorado should fear most – given how critically important a thriving energy sector is to our economy and fiscal well-being.

Another ballot measure now in the works will help halt this political game playing, and move the state in a much more responsible direction, by ensuring that COGCC remains the truly independent, deliberative, responsible regulatory body it was originally meant to be. It’s a shame that this can’t be accomplished without going back to voters, again. But given the tone-deafness of Gov. Polis and statehouse Democrats on this issue, this may be the only way to call a halt to the anti-energy hostilities and keep COGCC free from the destructive influence of extremists.

Colorado has been smart to have walked a sensible middle path on energy development. COGCC has done valuable and responsible work creating best-in-nation regulations, precisely because we’ve avoided turning it into something radical, unaccountable and over-politicized.

SB181 puts all that at risk, and virtually ensures over-politicized rulemaking, by turning COGCC into a guided missile in the hands of anyone occupying the governor’s mansion. And until this governor and the Democrats running the statehouse can demonstrate that they’ll walk a responsible, mainstream path on energy issues – a path that serves the interests of all Coloradans, not just a noisy minority of extremists – that’s just not a weapon I’m willing to trust them with.

Ray Scott, a Republican from Grand Junction, represents District 7 in the Colorado state Senate and serves on the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee.