Facing online and on-air criticisms this week from environmental groups, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner is portraying himself as a steadfast defender of Colorado’s oil and gas industry in an era of unprecedented progressive attacks.
Gardner released a one-minute ad on Twitter Wednesday and his campaign said it’s likely to spend money spreading the video across social media. In the ad, Gardner’s third of the 2020 election cycle, footage of climate protests and liberal Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez play as the senator narrates.
“The Green New Deal kills jobs, has trillions of dollars of spending. We can’t afford it, it’ll bankrupt this country, and it’s a radical move toward a socialist energy and economic policy,” Gardner warns.
Television news reports then provide the narration, discussing environmentalist lawsuits, moratoriums on oil and gas drilling, and energy sector layoffs that the Gardner campaign connects to Senate Bill 181, a package of oil and gas regulations signed into law this year by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
“Don’t let the radical left destroy Colorado jobs,” the ad warns in red letters as it comes to a close.
Gardner, a Yuma Republican, faces a tough re-election fight next year in an increasingly liberal Colorado. He has hinted in these early months of his re-election campaign that he will focus heavily on the threat of socialism and the Democratic Party’s leftward swing as he rallies his Republican base and makes his case to undecided voters.
“Renewable energy sources like wind and solar must be a part of our long-term energy outlook, but we shouldn’t be sacrificing traditional energy sources to fulfill the pipe dream that is the Green New Deal,” Gardner said in a statement. “The far left’s radical agenda to ban oil and gas would be a disaster for Colorado and eliminate over 80,000 jobs in our state alone.”
Gardner’s ad comes at a time when $54,000 worth of Environmental Defense Fund Action ads are playing on Denver and Colorado Springs radio stations. Those ads claim the biggest threats to Colorado’s air and water are Gardner’s voting record and his staunch support for President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, on television, Conservation Colorado and Rocky Mountain Values are airing a 30-second ad accusing Gardner of helping to “dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to combat air pollution.” Like the EDF Action ad, it criticizes Gardner for accepting campaign donations from the oil and gas industries.
Gardner’s ad does not mention any of his nine Democratic opponents, several of whom support the Green New Deal. The leading Democratic primary candidate is John Hickenlooper, a fellow Green New Deal critic and former governor who has faced heat from other Democratic candidates for being too close to oil and gas. Hickenlooper’s campaign is running digital ads that call on Gardner to support the Colorado Outdoor Recreation & Economy Act, a public lands bill approved by the House on Thursday.
“Great — let’s have this debate,” Andrew Romanoff, a Democratic candidate and supporter of the Green New Deal, said in response to Gardner’s ad. “If Colorado’s junior senator wants to sacrifice our health and capsize our economy by surrendering clean energy jobs to other countries and refusing to help oil and gas workers make a transition they can already see coming, we’ll fight him every step of the way.”
“One thing that I admire about Cory Gardner is that he is honest about saying where his loyalties lie,” said Diana Bray, a climate activist and Democratic candidate for Senate who also supports the Green New Deal. “He has pitched himself as a defender of the fossil fuel extraction industry. He tells us what he values. The problem is that Gardner is protecting polluters, rather than the people who live in Colorado.”
As he makes the case that he will best protect Colorado’s oil and gas industry — and the many jobs it still provides — one of Gardner’s favorite targets is Colorado’s Just Transition Office. The state office doesn’t have a director yet –` it was created by law this year and is still being assembled, after which it will help coal workers and coal-dependent communities transition away from fossil fuels.
Gardner often mocks the office as communistic. “Don’t worry, comrade, the Office of Just Transition is here for you,” he jokingly told the Western Conservative Summit in July.
“The Office of Just Transition is, I guess, where the government tells you your job isn’t good enough, comrade, just come on in and we will share with you how to be retooled and reskilled so that you can have that government-approved job,” he said at a campaign event the next month.
