Chris Colclasure

Chris Colclasure joined Beatty & Wozniak in 2018, helping clients win permits to build natural resource development projects and keep them running. Chris frequently appears before state boards and commissions, drawing on his experience in private practice, Colorado’s Air Pollution Control Division, and the federal government to obtain regulatory approvals and develop cost-effective options for complying with environmental standards.

As a prominent air quality lawyer in Colorado and the West, Chris guided oil and gas clients through the development of the state’s most significant air quality regulations. He finds creative strategies for industries to operate successfully in harsh regulatory atmospheres, including voluntary measures to avoid regulations. He brought flexibility to Colorado’s ozone State Implementation Plan (SIP), storage vessel emission control standards, emissions monitoring rules, and nearly every significant oil and gas air quality rulemaking in Colorado during the last decade.

Chris litigates permit appeals and challenges to environmental regulations in state and federal court. He testified as an expert on air quality regulations in a toxic tort lawsuit. He has a knack for presenting complex technical arguments in plain English, and for finding creative legal arguments.

Chris served in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, where he represented federal agencies in electric utility rate cases in Oklahoma and Alaska. He represented industry clients, including a solar energy trade association, in regulatory matters before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.

Chris knows first-hand how government agencies function, establish goals, interact with stakeholders, and measure success. He leverages this insider’s perspective to find innovative solutions that accommodate the needs of his clients and their regulators.