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Dems push back on Ganahl plan to drill away climate crisis

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August 25, 2022, 2:51 pm

The Colorado Democratic Party on Thursday jumped on this week’s assertion by Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl that she would address climate change by getting the state’s “oil and gas workers back to work.”

In a written statement Thursday, Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson Kailee Stiles responded: 

“Colorado has a year-long fire season, and pollution smog covers the Front Range on a regular basis. Ganahl’s solution to climate change is to make it worse with more of the same politics that caused the climate crisis in the first place. Her loyalty is clearly to the oil and gas lobby, not to Coloradans.”

Speaking Tuesday at the Colorado Water Congress forum in Steamboat Springs, Ganahl, a CU Regent who is challenging incumbent Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in the Nov. 8 election, was reportedly asked by someone in the audience how she would address climate change.

Heidi Ganahl

This came after Ganahl, rather than sticking to the primary forum topic of water and the dire state of the Colorado River Basin, delivered her lengthy stump speech on school choice, the fentanyl crisis, COVID regulations and teen suicide.

On the topic of water, she finally said, according to Colorado Politics: “I will have a plan Day One to protect Colorado water, our most valuable natural resource. It’s vital for clean drinking, water, agriculture, food, security, energy, wildlife recreation.”

Numerous studies have pointed to manmade climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels and the releasing of carbon into the atmosphere, as a critical factor that’s warming the state, reducing its mountain snowpack and diminishing the flow of the Colorado River.

Asked how best to address climate change, Ganahl said she would get Colorado oil and gas workers “back to work” as part of an “all of the above energy approach” because the state’s fossil fuel sector produces cleaner energy than other options.

“There is absolutely no reason for us to not produce the energy and instead go to Russia, Venezuela, Iran,” she said. The United States has banned fossil fuel imports from Russia in the wake of its invasion of Crimea and does not import oil from Iran and Venezuela.

Gov. Jared Polis
Gov. Jared Polis

Polis stayed on topic and said the state must be smarter about growth, water use, storage and other policies as Colorado continues to see warmer temperatures due to climate change.

“We cannot afford the water profile of unlimited exurban sprawl,” Polis reportedly said, calling for greater water efficiency and sustainability. “When we look at other states, we see the sobering warnings of growing desert cities without water sources, new developments that are either left all but abandoned or engaging in buy and dry.”

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.