Climate Defiance Activists Confront Jared Polis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 7 PM MT, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2026

CONTACT: Ira Arlook, [email protected], c: 202 258 5437

At AARP/Colorado Sun Event this evening, addressed by Colorado’s governor via video…

CLIMATE DEFIANCE ACTIVISTS CONFRONT JARED POLIS OVER HIS CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR THE OIL & GAS POLLUTION OF COLORADO

Despite 2018 Campaign Pledge to End Fossil Fuel Use in the State by 2040, Polis Has Consistently Undermined that Goal

His Appointees Just Approved Fracking at a Drill Site Near Aurora Reservoir, Endangering 400,000 Residents’ Drinking Water

Calling on Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, to end his support of fracking and other oil and gas pollution of Colorado or resign, activists from Climate Defiance disrupted his video/virtual talk at a 2026 Legislative Recap Session presented by AARP and hosted by Colorado Sun’s elections editor, Jesse Paul, at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Policy. A dozen activists locked arms in front of the room, holding a banner that read “Eat S—t Polis.”

Despite Polis’ 2018 campaign commitment to end fossil fuel use in Colorado by 2040, Climate Defiance points to his consistent violation of that pledge:

• In 2024, he brokered a backroom deal designed to halt all legislation aimed at reducing fossil fuel production until 2028.
• He appointed pro-fossil fuel commissioners to the state’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission (EDMC) that is tasked with regulating oil and gas development.
• In April, those commissioners approved the Sunlight-Long fracking pad, an industrial drill site just a half mile from the Aurora Reservoir, the water source for 400,000 area residents. Even a small spill threatens to poison this vital water source, not to mention that each of the 24 wells will use millions of gallons of water as the state descends deeper into a historic drought. Thousands of residents live near Sunlight-Long, within the danger zone of a slew of toxic air pollutants, including benzene. A month earlier, Polis announced the reappointment of two of the three commissioners who voted to approve Sunlight-Long. The third, ECMC Chair Jeff Robbins, was appointed by Polis to a term ending in 2028.

Polis signed a law in 2019 mandating ECMC commissioners to regulate oil and gas in a manner that protects “public health, safety and welfare, and the environment.” Yet despite evidence that fracking multiplies blood cancer rates in children, exacerbates Colorado’s toxic ozone crisis, uses millions of gallons of water as Colorado descends into drought, threatens vital water sources, and contributes to catastrophic climate collapse, the ECMC continues to approve new fracking projects year after year.

“We are in a climate emergency,“ said James Wooldridge, Distributed Organizing Director with Climate Defiance and a Denver resident. “Polis’ failure to protect Coloradans from the worst impacts of climate change will become more and more evident in our daily lives as Colorado descends deeper into drought, fueling wildfires and severe water restrictions.”

“We are decades past the time for slow, incremental change,” Wooldridge said. “Increasingly, activists feel they have no other option but to put their bodies on the line to get through to politicians like Polis.”

“In the climate change fight, every day is the difference between thousands of lives,” Wooldridge said. “We need leaders who will fight tooth and nail for a rapid energy transition—not bought-out Democrats like Polis who stand in the way of progress. He should step aside.”

“The notion that the ECMC has any intent to protect public health and welfare is absurd. Approving fracking projects in 2026 is downright suicidal, and any serious leader of the state of Colorado should recognize that.”

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