Gov. Jared Polis has been criticized recently for dismissing concerns about the implementation of SB-181 – the sweeping oil and natural gas bill that was rammed through the state legislature earlier this year. 

Approvals of new drilling permits dropped sharply under the new law, directly contradicting promises from the Polis administration that drilling permits would continue to be processed in a “business as usual” manner. 

But when Polis was challenged about the implementation of SB-181, he dismissed the energy industry’s concerns as “silly.” He even tried to pretend the law he championed and signed just a few months ago would have no impact on investment and jobs in Colorado’s energy sector. “It has nothing to do with me,” the governor told an audience of energy professionals at an industry conference in downtown Denver.

The governor’s dismissive and indifferent attitude toward the energy sector – one of the state’s largest sources of jobs and tax revenue – is troubling enough. But it’s even more alarming when you consider how differently the Polis administration is treating the demands of anti-oil and gas groups.

The governor’s political appointees would never dream of calling these demands “silly.” Instead, the Polis administration has put the demands of the environmental left on the fast track. 

That’s the clear conclusion from a series of internal Polis administration e-mails that were released by the industry-sponsored news and commentary site Western Wire. These e-mails, obtained under open-records laws, show Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan – a member of the Air Quality Control Commission – instructing career-level regulators to start working on a wish list of regulatory actions from Colorado Communities for Climate Action, or CC4CA for short.

Ryan was the president of CC4CA, an environmental lobbying organization, before she was appointed by Polis to lead the CDPHE. 

In an e-mail to Garry Kaufman, the director of the Air Pollution Control Division, Ryan said: “The following is from my friends at CC4CA. Can you assess these and weave them into our upcoming discussions about what is do-able, if you had the resources?”

The wish list had more than a dozen different regulatory actions, including a demand to “impose a moratorium on the granting of new air pollution construction permits for oil and gas facilities.”

The wish list also included revoking the Hickenlooper administration’s request for more time to meet federal ozone standards. This move would effectively put Colorado in serious violation of federal air quality laws. It would invite punishing new regulations on a host of different economic sectors. 

On the ozone question, CDPHE and the Polis administration did exactly what was asked – within a few weeks of Ryan’s e-mail, CDPHE overturned the Hickenlooper administration’s policy on ozone and revoked its request for more time from the federal EPA. 

Therefore, we know every item on the wish list from Ryan and CC4CA – including the statewide moratorium on oil and gas permitting – must be taken seriously. 

A moratorium on air permits for oil and gas development would cause severe harm to the Colorado economy. It would be every bit as punishing as a moratorium on drilling permits from the COGCC. Energy firms need both air permits and drilling permits to stay in business. 

But these e-mails from Ryan – sent in late January and released to the public in April – and the all the questions they raise have been ignored by the Polis administration. 

Those questions include: What is the status of this proposed oil and gas permitting moratorium? How did a wish list from an outside group with a political agenda suddenly get turned into a work plan for career-level regulators? What other political wishes from the environmental lobby has Ryan told career-level officials to start turning into new regulations?

Polis may call these questions “silly,” or insist Ryan’s actions have “nothing to do with me.” But if he does that, he’d be wrong. The governor’s handpicked leader of the state health department has allowed environmental lobbyists to dictate the work of career-level staff – professional regulators whose work should be driven by facts, not political favors.

This is simply wrong. The public deserves answers and accountability from the the governor immediately. 

Bob Martinez is a retired entrepreneur and a former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.