After failing to ramp up regulation of the fossil-fuel industry or ban the drilling of new oil and gas wells in 2024, environmental groups are attempting a new approach this year: Trying to warn people before they buy fuel that they are harming the environment and themselves.
The Senate Transportation & Energy Committee is scheduled on Wednesday afternoon to hear House Bill 1277, which would require sellers of fuel products to attach to them a sticker that warns of the health and environmental consequences of using them. Sponsored by Democratic Reps. Jennifer Bacon of Denver and Junie Joseph of Boulder, the bill eked out of the House on a 33-30 vote and faces hurdles in the more moderate Senate.
HB 1277 offers an approach that mimics the health-warning labels required to be put onto cigarette packs but would be unique in the nation in terms of gas sales. It also carries significant repercussions for gas stations and fuel sellers who disregard it, as they could be subject to customers filing lawsuits claiming deceptive trade practices, which are subject to penalties of $20,000 per violation.
Sponsors say the bill is about education, arguing that consumers must be informed about the consequences of burning fuels, so that they have the power to make an informed choice about whether to purchase them. They note in the legislative declaration for HB 1277 that legislators have used a combination of regulations, incentives and consumer assistance to try to cut greenhouse-gas emissions but remain short of statutory goals, necessitating that they take a new approach.
Fuel education or fuel shaming?
Colorado state Reps. Junie Joseph and Jennifer Bacon explain House Bill 1277 to that chamber on April 1.
“I do not believe this bill is about trying to make people feel bad,” Bacon said during House debate on April 1. “We change products throughout the marketplace at all times. But one of the key things that leads to change is consumer knowledge … The purpose of this bill is to equip our neighbors with knowledge so they can make decisions accordingly.”
Opponents of this bill, however, say that explanation rings hollow against the fact that HB 1277 literally would require retailers to slap a sticker near their products telling potential customers that their purchases would do damage. Signs on fuel pumps or beside fuel products in containers would be required to say: “WARNING: Use of this product releases air pollutants and greenhouse gases, known by the state of Colorado to be linked to significant health impacts and global heating.”
While the bill states that most greenhouse gas emissions and anthropogenic ozone precursor emissions in Colorado come from production and use of petroleum products, natural gas and other hydrocarbons for fuel, it omits other key facts, opponents like Grier Bailey, executive director of the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association, say. It fails to note that more than 60% of ozone emissions in Colorado are not the result of any human-caused activity, that petroleum is used in the production of materials for the electric cars that legislators love and that gas taxes fund roads and multimodal options.
“We are 100% opposed to these legislators in the majority shaming our customers when they come to our stations,” said Bailey, whose industry group represents gas stations. “Not only is this forced speech that is blatantly unconstitutional, but it is basically a punch to the face to Colorado’s citizens who actually support the entire highway system.”
How the warning labels would work
A customer fuels their car with a gas pump at a Denver-area station.
HB 1277 includes specific details about how the policy must be implemented. Stickers must be adhered to conspicuous locations on fuel pumps or on the display area of fuel products sold in containers. Warnings must be printed in font no smaller than 16 points in black ink on a white background. The stickers and signs must be maintained and “replaced when necessary.”
Sponsors made several amendments during debate in the House that seemed designed to get them the minimum 33 votes they needed to pass the bill.
They remove requirement that signs and stickers be kept in “excellent” condition, decreased the required font from 24-point to 16-point and added language that removing the label is a crime, to give extra protection to fuel sellers. And in what seemed the biggest concession, they required that consumers looking to file suit against a business for violating the law must first send certified mail to the retailer noting the violation and then give them 45 days after receipt of the letter to cure the violation.
“I do not want it to be lost on anybody what we’re looking for, but we do want it to be operable,” Bacon said.
Fuel warnings generated bipartisan opposition
Rep. Carlos Barron rails against House Bill 1277 on the chamber floor on April 1.
None of this salved the bill’s Republican critics, who accused sponsors of nanny-state behavior and questioned whether a sticker glanced at quickly by a mother rushing to gas up before picking up her children would suddenly change behavior. Rep. Ryan Gonzalez, R-Greeley, unsuccessfully attempted to amend the bill to add a label to the warning label noting that the required adhesive signs were made with petroleum products that harmed the environment and public health.
“We are putting an unfunded mandate on these gas-station owners to basically tell people ‘You are the reason we have global warming if you buy these gas products,’” said Rep. Carlos Barron, R-Fort Lupton.
Eight House Democrats joined all Republicans in opposing HB 1277: Speaker Jule McCluskie of Dillon and Reps. Sean Camacho of Denver, Lisa Feret of Arvada, Bob Marshall of Highlands Ranch, Matthew Martinez of Monte Vista, Tisha Mauro of Pueblo, Jacque Phillips of Thornton and Gretchen Rydin of Littleton.
The Senate Transportation & Energy Committee is expected to meet at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Committee Room 352. HB 1277 is schedule fifth on the agenda, meaning it could be later in the afternoon when it is heard.