We recently sat down with Phil Weiser, Colorado Attorney General, for a KSUT Conversation.
We discussed collaborations with tribes on water rights disputes and other issues, as well as youth mental health and civics education.
The interview was recorded on September 11, 2025.
Interview Transcript
This transcript was edited for brevity and clarity.
Tami Graham, KSUT Executive Director: So I understand you met with the Southern Ute Tribal Council today, and I'm hoping you could share with our listeners since we're sitting here in Ignacio, Colorado, the home of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, anything you can share about the work you're doing presently with the tribe.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser: The meeting started with a teaching that's been handed down by the Tribal Council, where the chairman said something to the effect of, 'How can we help you, help us?' I asked the chairman afterwards, and he said, in dealing with the federal government, that is a way they've learned how to frame questions. Right now, there's a question about this oil spill that looks to be the biggest oil spill ever in Colorado. I believe they said close to a hundred thousand gallons of oil. I am on top of this for my office, and the College Department of Public Health and Environment is looking at the situation with the critical question of how do we make sure it doesn't get into the Animas River. Also, with the critical point of how do we remediate the harm from this really scary accident. And part of what we talked about is how do we get out ahead of potential future accidents, making sure that we're monitoring vulnerabilities.
How do we make sure that we're responsibly addressing another concern that is all across Colorado, which is orphaned wells, when someone stops using a well, and maybe it's not capped, and that can lead to danger. And part of what this phrase, 'How can we help you help us,' is about, is how do we make sure we're in conversation? How do we make sure that we're working together effectively? And that's a relationship I've worked hard to develop with the Southern Utes. This incident happens at a time when we've got a strong relationship and so I'm in touch with the general counsel for the tribe and the chair of the tribe. I also raised the issue about water because one of the problems right now, and we're dealing with this challenge around the Colorado River and how we're going to manage the California River Compact...is there is water that both tribes? Ute Mountain Utes and the Southern Utes have water rights towards, and they don't have the infrastructure built to access the water.
There is another idea out there, which is if you don't put the money to build the infrastructure, can you create some form of compensation for the tribes who aren't using the water? Right. That is theirs. And I was informed today at the council meeting that there are some encouraging signs that we may be able to work towards that. But my message there similar to the issues around the oil spill is: I've got your back. My commitment is to work with the tribes. That's why I've had regular consultations to make sure we keep building relationships on a range of issues. We talked about the opioid crisis, about broadband, and public safety. I'm a big believer in the importance of these consultations. I'm someone who understands sovereignty of Indian tribes and the critical nature of these consultations.
Graham: As I'm sure you're aware, those governmental-to-governmental relations haven't always been the best of relations. So I'm sure the tribe appreciates your showing up here in person — which again doesn't always happen — and really collaboratively thinking about these very challenging issues
You spoke about some of the topics and issues that you spoke with the Southern Ute Tribal Council about today. I know you're sort of circling and spending a lot of time in southwest Colorado these few days. Can you speak a little bit more about some of your priorities for Southwestern Colorado in particular?
Weiser: I just spoke to the Alliance partnership, which had an economic summit, its 25th anniversary summit, and talked about collaboration around a range of issues, including economic development supporting local businesses. And I talked a bit about youth mental health. Let me pick up that latter conversation about youth mental health. I am someone who's learned a lot from the Durango School superintendent, Dr. Karen Cheser, who has built a commitment to supporting young people's development and building those resilience skills. Young people right now are hurting. They're spending six hours a day on their phones, including an hour and a half during the school day. They're often going down to our calls, getting notifications all hours of the night. They're not sleeping well enough. We have a crisis. That's the words of the former surgeon, general youth mental health crisis. I've gone after Juul, who pushed vaping in the schools and then we've given money out that we've invested in preventative mental health work.
Weiser: And we had a conference. We invited Dr. Tesser up as a keynote speaker in Denver at Empower Field of Mile High working with the Denver Broncos and talked about this critical work ahead. And one of the themes that came through the conferences is how important it is for young people to build relationships with adults in their lives who they know care about them so they can talk about how they're doing, their fears, their hopes, and feel supported as opposed to feel isolated, lonely, and disconnected. We clearly have, when it comes to young people, a connection crisis. Young people are not getting outside enough, not building relationships with one another enough. We've got important work to do on that front.
Graham: Can you speak about other environmental issues that are priorities for you in addition to this sort of remarkable story that's been coming out over the last couple of months around the oil spill here in Southwestern Colorado?
Weiser: Let me mention a few. The oil spill is, to me, a reminder of this fragile ecosystem we live in, for everyone. Southwest Colorado, the Animas River, and its turning orange remains a scary reminder that the amount of minds that are in this part of the state can pose hazards. We're working hard on that issue. One of my roles as Attorney General is to be a trustee in our natural resources defense counsel, and we call this nerds effectively affectionately and I been on top of this getting $7 million back to as part of state, and we've done regular consultations with the local governments here to talk about what are the ways forward on this remediation effort and this critical need to restore, and we're going to work both those hand in hand. There is an active Superfund site remediating the harm. There's also a need to restore it.
I also mentioned the water issues around the Colorado River, and this is crucial for the future of Colorado. Water is life in Colorado, and the Lower Basin states, Arizona, Nevada, and California, have been overusing the amount of water they're supposed to have. And a challenge is going to be how do we come up with a new framework? Ideally we get to it collaboratively together. There's a risk that we won't, and there'll be litigation. But preparing to protect our water in Colorado is very much on our mind. Also, and I had some conversations yesterday, we're in the midst of an energy transition. It's very important for all of us concerned about climate change to ask how are we reducing emissions from carbon and methane. We know they harm human health. We know they worsen our climate. The challenge is harder with this current administration who's seeking to roll back a set of protections seeking to undermine the rollout of electric vehicles.
I've had to file 35 lawsuits against the federal government, a number of them in the natural resources area, including making sure the funding that we get for electric vehicles is delivered as it has to be including to protect the AmeriCorps program, one that we won quite recently. I'm going to keep protecting Colorado, keep defending our rights and whatever bullying, intimidating efforts come out of Washington. My view is I'm standing our ground here in Colorado, fighting for the principles. We believe in making sure that we get what is rightfully ours. And as a result, we're actually getting more funds from a number of programs than some of our Red State neighbors are who are not standing up for their rights.
Graham: Speaking of bullying by the federal government, as many of our listeners know, KSUT participated as a co-plaintiff with Colorado Public Radio, and Aspen Public Radio, and NPR against an executive order issued by the Trump Administration this spring. We're still waiting on a hearing date to be set on a ruling on that, but I did want to take a moment and just thank you for taking the lead amongst 23 attorneys General...Colorado took the lead in filing an amicus brief in defending our actions in that lawsuit. So I just want to say thank you for that.
Weiser: I appreciate it. It's very important that in the face of bullying, in the face of illegal behavior, that we fight it, we stand our ground. This is happening now with Space Command in Colorado. The president said he's going to take Space Command from Colorado because he doesn't like that. We choose to have mail-in elections. Colorado has the constitutional authority to decide how we do our elections. I'm not going to let the president try to bully us and punish us for what we do with our constitutional freedom. And that's sadly the story of my last eight months because this administration has been acting as a bully, acting illegally and recklessly. Time and time again. We're going to court time and time again, and by and large, we're winning.
Graham: I want to close with a question. You recently spoke in August at Colorado Press Association's annual convention, and you mentioned that you were open to creative public policy ideas that might help sustain local journalism. As many of our listeners know, I think everybody that's listening knows federal funding has been cut for public media, including 20% of KSUT's budget, come October 1st. There's a lot of creative thinking around the country in the States about how states might step in to help support not only public media, but news deserts and media in general. What are your thoughts on that?
Weiser: We're having this conversation the day after both the school shooting in Evergreen and after Charlie Kirk was gunned down and killed on a college campus. I mentioned this at that conversation and I want to lift it up again. I'd like to explore what I see as a two-pronged opportunity to support public media as a forum for free speech and airing different viewpoints and civic education in our high schools, in our colleges. How do we develop the right civic skills to listen to one another, not to turn to violence when you don't like what someone's saying, the response needs to be speech. That's what the First Amendment means. If you don't like speech, don't try to silence it. Don't attack the person. Use your voice to counter speech. Also, there's an important opportunity here, and I think public media can be really a valuable tool, teaching tool for people to ask the question, how do I know this is true?
And sadly, there's so much misinformation that can include honest mistakes and disinformation. Other countries trying to mislead us out there. We need to develop the tools as a society to ask the question, how do I know this is true? What's your source for that? Public radio plays a critical role, and we need to keep a media outlet that asks those questions. How do we listen to one another? How do we have discourse and how do we decide what's true or not? So I'd love to find ways to invest in public media, civic education, helping high school students and college students and the public at large continue to exercise this critical responsibility as citizens. And if we cannot build the capacity to be informed citizens, we're not going to have a democratic republic.
