In 2019, Great Britain banned development of its own oil and natural gas supplies, relinquishing its energy dependence to foreign countries.

Today, much like the rest of Europe, Great Britain now faces an energy crisis. British utility bills will rise 80% this fall and inflation could hit 22%, which will crush family budgets and ripple through the economy. One third of the country’s residents could succumb to poverty this winter, according to one estimate.

It’s a tragic and dangerous situation as winter looms.

Within days of becoming British Prime Minister, Liz Truss this month reversed course and lifted the ban on oil and natural gas development to regain the country’s energy independence and seek relief for residents. Undoubtedly, this relief can’t come fast enough as it will take time to rebuild the oil and natural gas industry there.

Sadly, this isn’t just an anomaly. It could be a harbinger of what’s to come in the United States if we’re not careful.

In the past week, environmental lobbyists led by the Sierra Club petitioned the EPA to block the sales and use of our natural gas furnaces, water heaters, stoves, grills and other appliances, and requested that Colorado’s regulators ban oil and gas development here during the summer months, if not outright.

The Sierra Club has made clear its aim is to block domestic oil and natural gas development – without regard to consumer costs, utility bills or the reliability of our grid and energy systems. This is the same group that pushes regulators to actually increase traffic congestion to make driving as intolerable as possible. Their political agenda trumps the reality citizens will face as a result.

Recently at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Meeting, the Chamber’s new Board Director George Sparks, who also serves as the Denver Museum of Nature & Science President & CEO, told the audience we should be more focused on an energy evolution than an abrupt (and impossible) energy transition to renewables. He cautioned that we’re transitioning from our current energy system to one that isn’t fully understood nor realized.

Shutting down the energy that powers our growing needs without a realistic replacement continues to bear out in Europe and even California.

Mere days after announcing the state will ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles in 2035, California’s grid operator asked residents to limit charging their electric vehicles. As our electricity needs continue to grow, California’s grid runs more on hope than data and science.

California is the country’s seventh-largest producer of crude oil (Colorado is fifth) but that state continues to block new development. Back in 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom conceded the state’s approach is not sustainable. He told other governors at the time, “California since 1985, has declined its (oil) production by 60%, but only seen a modest decrease in demand, 4.4%. And that means we’re making up for a lack of domestic production from Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, and Colombia, and that’s hardly an environmental solution when you look globally.”

Colorado’s oil and natural gas workers take great pride in producing among the world’s cleanest oil and natural gas molecules, providing affordable and reliable energy to our residents and helping to power our local economies. We source our steel from workers in Pueblo that support operations in places like Weld and Garfield counties. That production is then transported to the refinery in Commerce City that moves homegrown energy to Denver International Airport and to many of our local gasoline stations. Locally sourced natural gas also helps heat our homes and power our electricity. Yet the Sierra Club wants to block our state’s development and outsource it to somewhere else that doesn’t share our environmental, labor or human rights standards.

Using Colorado oil and gas, we can meet both our energy needs and our climate targets while avoiding the challenges faced in California and Europe.

But we need to put political agendas aside and empower our energy experts and consumer leaders to design an energy evolution that realistically delivers affordability, reliability and sustainability for our residents.

If a candidate for political office comes by your home this fall, asking for your vote, ask them where they stand on homegrown energy, developed cleanly to power our grid and our lives. Energy needs to be a people issue, not a partisan issue.

Rather than follow California, let’s lead the rest of the country.

Dan Haley is president and CEO of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association.