"We feel that the economic environment that's created by regulations in fact creates a de facto regressive tax on poor consumers," said Niger Innis, spokes-man for the New York-based Congress on Racial Equality. CORE was founded in 1942 and played a part in the struggle against racism and Jim Crow laws in the South. Since then, it has embraced conservative causes.

Innis visited Denver on Tuesday to join Sen. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, and Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, in announcing a resolution questioning the cost of proposed rules by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Innis' group has received steady funding from ExxonMobil, according to Exxon's annual Worldwide Giving Reports. Greenpeace has archived the reports, which show the country's largest oil company has given CORE $275,000 since 1998.

Innis said the true sum is "a fraction" of that amount.

"ExxonMobil has not given us a quarter of a million dollars. That is absolutely not the case," he said. Innis said he'd open his books "when you guys in the press demand that Greenpeace open up their books."

Innis also announced the formation of a new local group called Colorado Consumers for Affordable Energy.

"When the energy industry gets a cold from extreme regulation or taxes, my people get the flu," he said.