North Colorado Residents Try to Will ’51st State’ Into Existence

They include a slate of new gun control laws, a highly controversial requirement for rural electricity cooperatives to double the amount of power they get from renewable energy and several initiatives that attempted to increase regulations on oil and gas developers who operate primarily in rural counties.

“We believe there’s an attack on oil and gas,” Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer said,  “We believe there’s an attack on agriculture. I don’t think those folks who are making laws down in Denver understand any of it.”

Commissioner Sean Conway, the de facto spokesman for the effort, has said Denver politicians ignore the concerns of rural people, which has lead to anger and frustration.

“People when they feel disenfranchised and they feel their voices aren’t being heard. That’s a problem in a representative form of government,” Conway told the radio station.

Representatives from as many as 11 counties attended informational meetings in the past two months, where they discussed everything from how to secede to whether to secede.