In the six months since the Colorado Energy Office’s state funding expired in a bitter political stalemate, the doomsday scenario predicted by Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper — a total shutdown that would make Colorado the only Western state without such an agency — never came to pass.

But in an ironic twist, the federal dollars that kept the $3.1 million office running can’t be spent on what Republicans were fighting to see more of — the promotion of traditional fuels, such as oil and natural gas.

“The funding we were able to repurpose cannot be used for traditional fuels, so everything the legislature wanted us to be working on, we can’t really work on,” said Kathleen Staks, the office’s executive director, in a recent interview.

Republican state Senate leaders used the state budget as leverage in the 2017 session to reshape the office and make it focus less on renewable energy and more on traditional fuels. The requirements in state law outlining the office’s mission remain, but the grant from the Department of Energy that keeps it afloat is earmarked for renewable-energy projects.

The new mandate is helping the Hickenlooper administration build its case to have the office’s state money, which until this year funded the bulk of the office’s operations, restored in the upcoming 2018 legislative session.

“For us to be able to actually fulfill what the legislature wants us to do, we have to have state funding — we can’t do it with the funding that we have,” Staks said.

The 40-year-old Energy Office has become a political football in recent years — a proxy for Colorado’s broader fight over the state’s role in reducing emissions that contribute to climate change.

Today, it’s tasked with promoting renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, as well as traditional fuels like coal, oil and gas. It offers energy-efficiency grants to schools and farms, and manages a weatherization program for low-income homeowners. It also provides grants and tax credits to help finance a variety of energy-related projects, including community solar panels and natural gas stations for alternative-fuel vehicles.

In their failed reauthorization bill last session, Republicans sought changes to mute the office’s statutory emphasis on green energy, deleting one reference to “clean and renewable,” and relaxing requirements on a grant and loan program that was previously earmarked for energy-efficient projects.

Democrats, meanwhile, countered with new provisions to promote renewable energy, as a trade for a Republican-backed plan to allow investor-owned utilities to buy natural gas reserves.

The gambit ended in finger-pointing and stalemate, with each side accusing the other of being unwilling to negotiate, and the governor blaming both sides for partisanship.

Since its state funding expired, though, the energy office received federal approval to take $3.1 million this year from a revolving loan program.

In a November briefing before the Joint Budget Committee, Staks told lawmakers that the agency had gone through a restructuring in an attempt to address last year’s concerns. And, in a nod to Republicans, the office plans to explore opportunities in the nuclear sector.

But in a significant legislative pivot, the governor is requesting to provide a stable, permanent budget for the office within the state’s general fund, avoiding periodic statutory reviews and annual appropriation fights — a shift that drew praise from the JBC chairwoman, Rep. Millie Hamner, a Dillon Democrat.

Staks expressed optimism that the office’s new mission and structure had buy-in from stakeholders across the energy and political spectrum. But it was not immediately clear if the office has done enough to placate critics on the right. At the budget hearing, Republican budget writers questioned whether the new structure would support traditional fuels, such as coal, to the degree it does renewables.

“I think it would be important to embrace Colorado’s coal industry and advocate a positive future for it rather than just call it dirty coal or dirty fuel,” said Rep. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, “so I hope you will incorporate that into your future proposal.”

In another exchange, Sen. Kent Lambert, the committee’s vice chair, asked whether the office even needed state funding next year.

“When that bill last year didn’t pass, it was kind of a surprise to me that all of a sudden $3.1 million in federal dollars suddenly appeared,” said Lambert, R-Colorado Springs.

Staks said the Department of Energy has authorized another $3.1 million for next year, if necessary. But, she added, the federal government’s preference is to use the funding for the loan program, which can be tapped by energy companies across the state to invest in innovation.