colorado freedom

Colorado's outgoing Republican Attorney General Cynthia Coffman had joined other states in challenging the Clean Power Plan, and 2018 GOP candidate George Brauchler also opposed the greenhouse gas restrictions and pledged not to challenge the Trump administration's actions. Brauchler favored the White House's "Affordable Clean Energy Rule" to replace the Clean Power Plan, while Democratic candidate Phil Weiser supported the restrictions and called attention to Brauchler's "<a href="https://gazette.com/news/energy-environment-are-crux-of-colorado-attorney-general-battle-between/article_f4822fd6-b1fa-11e8-a214-1781c1cddec7.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(204, 51, 51) 0px 3px 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">pro-industry approach to energy extraction</a>."RAGA spent <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2018/12/10/campaign-finance-2018-colorado-super-pac/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(204, 51, 51) 0px 3px 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">over $5.1 million</a> backing Brauchler through Colorado Freedom, a RAGA state affiliate set up by RAGA's chief financial officer, Lee Russell. Weiser, who won the race, <a href="https://gazette.com/news/energy-environment-are-crux-of-colorado-attorney-general-battle-between/article_f4822fd6-b1fa-11e8-a214-1781c1cddec7.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(204, 51, 51) 0px 3px 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">criticized</a> Colorado Freedom for being a "dark money" group funded, via RAGA, by "mostly out-of-state corporations" including Koch Industries.Some of the same fossil fuel companies that financed RAGA including Anadarko Petroleum, Extraction Oil and Gas, Noble Energy, and PDC Energy also <a href="https://www.westword.com/news/oil-and-gas-money-fueling-the-campaigns-for-colorados-amendment-74-against-prop-112-10954929" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(204, 51, 51) 0px 3px 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">gave millions</a> of dollars to another outside group, Protect Colorado, which spent a massive $40 million advocating the oil and gas industry's interests around two ballot measures.