DENVER – As tension mounts over the possibility of a filibuster and drastic changes to Senate rules over the confirmation vote of Judge Neil Gorsuch, the Colorado appeals court judge faces new plagiarism accusations.

Politico reports that a near-300-word passage from Gorsuch’s 2006 book, “The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia,” is nearly identical to a passage from a 1984 Indiana Law Journal article.

It also reports that Gorsuch “borrowed from the ideas, quotes and structures of scholarly and legal works without citing them” in other parts of his book and in a 2000 academic article he wrote.

The report says that Gorsuch did not attribute the passages to the Indiana Law Journal’s author,

Abigail Lawlis Kuzma, but instead sourced the same publications and cases as she used in her paper.

Kuzma, who is now an Indiana deputy attorney general, issued a statement through Gorsuch’s handlers saying she did “not see any issue here, even though the language is similar.”

But at least two academic and legal experts told Politico that the similarities in the publications constitute plagiarism. But the White House pushed back staunchly against those claims Tuesday.

“This false attack has been strongly refuted by highly-regarded academic experts, including those who reviewed, professionally examined, and edited Judge Gorsuch’s scholarly writings, and even the author of the main piece cited in the false attack,” White House spokesman Steven Cheung told the publication. “There is only one explanation for this baseless, last-second smear of Judge Gorsuch: those desperate to justify the unprecedented filibuster of a well-qualified and mainstream nominee to the Supreme Court.”

But how much effect the claims truly have on the vote to confirm Gorsuch is yet unknown.

Forty-four Democrats have already said they will either filibuster the vote and/or vote against Gorsuch’s confirmation.

Three Democrats have said they will vote for Gorsuch, and Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet has said he opposes a filibuster of the vote, as well as the “nuclear option” Republicans could use in the event of a sustained Democratic filibuster.

But still Wednesday, Bennet was not saying how he would vote.

Supreme Court nominees need to garner 60 Senate votes to be confirmed. With all 52 Republicans on board to support Gorsuch and the three Democrats, that brings them to 55 votes.

Democrats are expected to filibuster, to which Republicans could respond by invoking the so-called “nuclear option” that would change Senate rules so Supreme Court nominees would only need a simple majority of 51 votes to be confirmed.

Democrats last used the nuclear option in 2013 in order to confirm several Obama-era executive branch nominations that had been stalled by Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he supports the use of the nuclear option, but Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, called the idea “stupid,” saying it would set a bad precedent for future proceedings in the Senate because it could set a slippery slope for the option to be invoked for legislation as well.

But Democrats have pushed back over Republican complaints over the impending filibuster, saying that they set the stage for the showdown when many Republican senators failed to even hold hearings or meetings with President Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick Garland.

“I cannot believe he can stand here on the floor of the United States Senate and with a straight face say that Democrats are launching the first partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after McConnell spoke. “What the majority leader did to Merrick Garland by denying him even a hearing and a vote is even worse than a filibuster.”

An Oregon senator spoke all night in opposition to Gorsuch Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Gorsuch, 49, has drawn praise from conservatives for many of his decisions made both on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and before. They are pleased with his states-first stance and past writings that the court and law systems were too complex.

But that anti-federalist approach also extends into cases in which Gorsuch’s decisions might raise eyebrows for conservatives.

He has said he has concerns about government searches and seizures, including in the case of a teenage student from Albuquerque, New Mexico who was arrested for burping in a classroom, in which Gorsuch said there was a difference “between childish pranks and more seriously disruptive behaviors.”

But Democrats say they are displeased with decisions they say favor industry and corporations over workers, and others they say showed him favoring religious freedom as a constitutional right upheld by other court cases.

The showdown between Democrats and Republicans is expected to start Thursday, and a final vote on Gorsuch is expected Friday.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.

DENVER – President Donald Trump’s executive order Tuesday aimed at ending Obama-era climate change rules and curbing climate regulation enforcement sent ripples across Colorado’s political spectrum.

Colorado Democrats hammered Trump and his order to review and possibly rewrite the Clean Power Plan as a major threat to the environment and peoples’ health, but the order was lauded by state Republicans, who said that the order would free up the energy sector to expand the nation’s economy.

Trump himself says that the order would revive the coal industry, which had been in a steady decline since the mid-1980s, but lost more jobs and money at the onset of the Great Recession and thereafter.

He pledged during his campaign that he would undo Obama’s plans to cut down on fossil fuel emissions, and this order does just that by stripping a handful of regulatory measures.

The Clean Power Plan, which required power plants to reduce their carbon pollution by 32 percent by 2030, is the main target in the order. The Obama-era order has long been targeted by coal and oil and gas-rich states and companies that say it hampers their ability to profit from their natural resources.

Trump has also campaigned to bring coal jobs back to an industry that has suffered major losses, though the industry represented just 0.12 percent of the U.S. workforce according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1920, coal mining jobs alone made up nearly 2 percent of the U.S. workforce.

The Energy Department said in January that coal mining jobs amount to only 75,000 across the county, but there are approximately 650,000 renewable energy jobs in the U.S.

Another facet of the order strips a three-year moratorium imposed in January 2016 on the granting of coal leases on federal lands, and other parts of it roll back rules aimed at reducing carbon and methane emissions.

Both Trump and EPA chief Scott Pruitt have made alarming statements about climate change in recent months. Trump at one point said climate change was a “hoax” invented by the Chinese, and Pruitt has said that he doesn’t believe carbon dioxide is a main contributor to climate change – statements that have both been widely slammed by the scientific community.

Mixed reaction from Colorado Democrats, Republicans

Colorado’s Democrat Senator Michael Bennet was the first to attack Trump’s order Tuesday.

“President Trump’s decision to rewrite the Clean Power Plan could jeopardize thousands of new jobs and billions to our economy, and produce a confusing patchwork of state laws for American businesses,” he said in a statement. “It also could prevent the EPA from regulating clean air and water, sacrificing a rigorous scientific process in the name of ideology. Instead of leading the fight against climate change and transition to clean energy, this Administration has abandoned it.”

But he said he and Colorado would remain committed to meeting its target for clean energy and emissions under the Clean Power Plan. He also sent a letter, along with nine other U.S. senators from across the West, asking Trump to rescind the order.

“We stand ready to work with you and your Administration in reaching a balance between achieving energy independence, promoting innovation, and growing our rural economies,” the letter says, in part. “Unfortunately, your Executive Order takes the nation in the wrong direction.”

The renewable energy industry brings in billions of dollars each year for many western states. In 2015, 14 percent of the total electricity generated in Colorado was from wind generators, while the ranked 11th in the nation for solar energy capacity in 2016.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said he would continue to work to address climate change in Colorado.

“Today’s Executive Order by the President pulling back on policies addressing climate change will not deter Colorado’s efforts. Natural gas has become more economical than coal, and Colorado is a national leader on wind and solar energy, which are a boon to our economy, jobs and the environment,” he said.

Democrat Reps. Jared Polis, Diana DeGette and Ed Perlmutter all denounced Trump’s order Tuesday as well, saying it would negatively affect peoples’ health.

But Republican Reps. Scott Tipton, Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn applauded Trump’s order.

“State and local communities know what is best for them…#energyindependence,” Lamborn tweeted.

“The Obama Administration did everything in its power to pick winners and losers in American energy production. That era is now over,” Tipton said.

“The President’s action today will contribute to lower electricity and energy prices in Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District,” stated Congressman Ken Buck. “This executive order plays a key role in unleashing American energy and creating well-paying jobs through Colorado.”

The U.S. Energy Information Administration released a report last year showing that natural gas was set to pass coal in terms of the highest percentage share of electricity generation in the country late last year, and that forecasted generating costs were supposed to level out with coal in the next several years.

Colorado miners, energy industry react

“This is the end of a policy that’s designed to keep coal in the ground,” said Stan Dempsey, the president of the Colorado Mining Association, who said the order will also help level the playing field with natural gas. “We’re not going to see as many mines close as quickly as they possibly could.”

The coal industry employs more than 2,700 people in the state, according to the Colorado Mining Association.

Energy analysts, though, said the order would have little impact on energy in the state., where more than half of the electricity is generated by coal.

“Trump’s reversal of the Clean Power Plan is going to have a much bigger impact on the eastern half of the United States,” said Bob Yu, a senior analyst with Platts Analytics, a leading provider of energy information. “In Colorado, it’s going to be very, very minimal. The coal generation here is already very cheap, so it’s already competitive to natural gas, and the coal retirements that are coming up are very small compared to the total stack of coal power plants.”

Coal has been struggling for years in Colorado, with a 32 percent drop in production last year alone.

Xcel Energy recently announced more investments in wind energy, and states that under 2010 state regulations, all the Denver metro area coal-powered plants have been converted to natural gas or decommissioned.

“Xcel Energy’s plans make economic and environmental sense regardless of the future of the Clean Power Plan.  We intend to keep moving forward with a low-priced, clean energy strategy that provides the economical, clean energy our customers want,” said Ben Fowke, Chairman, President and CEO Xcel Energy.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.