Donald Trump’s comments about fracking and his criticism of a fire marshal during a campaign swing through Colorado last Friday turned heads nationally.
On Monday, Gov. John Hickenlooper — who’s supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton — was happy to pile on his criticism of the Republican presidential nominee.
Trump, who headlined rallies in Colorado Springs and Denver, told reporters that while he supports fracking, he also believes state and local governments should be able to ban fracking. In Colorado, that support for local control over fracking goes against a Colorado Supreme Court ruling, the position of prominent Republicans and, unusual among Democrats, Hickenlooper’s stance.
“I don’t think he understands, completely, the issue,” Hickenlooper told The Denver Post. “But that’s not unusual for him.”
Trump also made a point several times during his Colorado Springs rally of castigating the local fire marshal, Brett Lacey, for not allowing more people into his event. He said Lacey was “probably a Democrat,” though it turned out Lacey is a registered Republican.
Moments before that rally, Trump had gotten stuck with others in a hotel elevator and was rescued by Colorado Springs firefighters — from Lacey’s department.
“My son Teddy is just learning about irony,” Hickenlooper said Monday. “It’s hard to find a really good example of what is irony — this is irony,” he said of the two events involving the fire department. “Here he is just beating on the fire (marshal), a civilian of the year … for doing his job. That’s not how we treat public safety in Colorado.”
He predicted Trump’s comments wouldn’t play well with Colorado voters.
On Monday, Trump doubled down on his criticism of fire marshals. In Columbus, Ohio, he again suggested there were political reasons behind a restrictive capacity of 1,000 set for the room hosting an event. (The Columbus Fire Department pushed back, saying Trump’s campaign had agreed to the restriction based on the room having only one exit.)
As in Colorado Springs, Trump argued in comments to the media that the venue could have held thousands more people:
https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/760191143648694272
But here’s another irony alert: While Hickenlooper disagrees with Trump on local control over fracking, the candidate he supports — Hillary Clinton — agrees with Trump.
Last week, Politico reported that Clinton adviser Trevor Houser told the outlet: “We’re going to use every authority we have to ensure that local communities are protected” from fracking.
When he waded into the fracking issue Friday, Trump inserted himself into an ongoing debate that typically has pitted Democrats and environmentalists who favor the option of local bans against business-friendly Republicans who want state control.
Hickenlooper, a former geologist, has bucked his party by favoring stronger state control.
Asked why he thought Trump was wrong to support locals’ ability to ban fracking, the governor called the issue a “tricky thing.”
“You balance people’s private property (rights) but at the same time make sure that you keep everybody safe and healthy,” he said. “I think that’s why we increased the fines for spilling crude oil or anything that gets spilled on site — it used to be 500 bucks a day, now it’s $15,000 a day — and why we’re now doing methane inspections of every well that has gas connected to it multiple times in the course of a year.
“It is a responsibility to make sure that we keep those sites safe. But if you turn over total responsibility to the local communities, they are subject to the voters who aren’t anywhere near the (fracking site) but will, in many cases … vote to ban any oil and gas activity at all. The people who own the minerals, they don’t have a vote.”
