Anti-fracking nonprofit Colorado Rising is asking a Denver judge to force the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to temporarily ban issuing new oil and gas permits until rulemaking is complete.

The advocacy group filed a complaint Tuesday in Denver District Court, formalizing a long-standing demand by anti-fracking groups to stop all permits while rules are being written.

The commission is considering amendments to its rules after Gov. Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 19-181, Protect Public Welfare Oil and Gas Operations, a law intended to make sweeping changes to how the oil and gas industry is regulated, including prioritizing public health, safety and the environment when considering oil and gas development.

The COGCC temporarily halted new permits while the commission director wrote guidelines to use while the new regulations are developed. The criteria allow COGCC Director Jeff Robbins to hold up or deny permits based on those 16 guidelines. Although critics say the number of new permits issued is back up to levels before SB 181 was passed, Robbins disputed those claims last month, saying the number of permits approved for new oil site locations has decreased.

Colorado Rising representatives alleged in the complaint that the commission is ignoring the requirements set by the law, and infringing on residents’ due process rights.

The complaint also asks a judge to order discovery as outlined in SB-181 once rulemaking is complete, they said.

“I’m really sick and tired of the hubris and just the sheer belligerence of the administration in not recognizing that the constitutional rights of these residents is something that is paramount,” said former House Rep. Joe Salazar, the lead attorney for Colorado Rising, at a livestreamed news conference early Wednesday.

The commission is using the old rules, which do not make the primary focus health, safety and welfare, Salazar said. He cited issues residents in Broomfield’s Wildgrass subdivision were facing.

But Robbins has said business is not the same as it was in the past.

“I’m trying to do what I believe the legislature told me to do, which is do not put a ban or moratorium on all new oil and gas development and don’t give oil and gas development a free ride and a pass from (SB) 181,” he said in a previous interview.

Colorado Rising filed the complaint in district court, bypassing the commission, because it would be “futile” to take the issue up with Polis or the commission who have said they wouldn’t pause issuing permit, Salazar added.

“Regarding the claim that the commission must cease all permitting until rules are promulgated, it has repeatedly been stated publicly that the commission will continue to conduct its business under SB 19-181 while the commission conducts rulemaking,” the COGCC said in a statement to The Denver Post.

Colorado Petroleum Council Executive Director Lynn Granger said in a statement Wednesday that proponents of SB 181 assured the industry and the public that the law wouldn’t halt energy development.

“We are grateful to the COGCC for largely honoring this assurance, and are disappointed that certain actors seek to circumvent a process that is already underway in their effort to shut down natural gas and oil production in the state,” Granger said.