The oil and gas industry in Colorado over the past four years has put millions of dollars into campaigns for politicians and for public relations.
As The Denver Post reports, the oil and gas industry has poured more than $80 million into Colorado to shape public opinion and influence campaigns and ballot initiatives, creating a political force that has had broad implications throughout the state.
Last year, the oil and gas industry played a part in maintaining a Republican-controlled Senate and more recently, the political muscle helped the industry successfully lobby Republican lawmakers to kill a bill that would have forced state regulators to map oil and gas pipelines following a fatal home explosion in Firestone that investigators blamed on a severed gas pipeline.
That gas pipeline was owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, which according to campaign finance records, gave $510,000 to the Colorado Economic Leadership Fund, which spent over $700,000 mostly to help Republican senate candidates.
