U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, seeking to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, defended hydraulic fracturing as a job creator and said bans of the practice would kill thousands of jobs "overnight" in a visit to Durango on Sunday.
His "all-of-the-above energy policy" relies on fracking.
"If an energy ban were to take place in this state, you would lose 120,000 jobs overnight," he said. "Twelve billion dollars in economic activity would walk away and $1 billion in tax revenues that builds roads and schools in this state.
Colorado has some of, if not the most, stringent regulations in place. A hydraulic fracturing ban on the ballot would be devastating to our economy."
Gardner, a 40-year-old Republican from Yuma, was in Durango on a tour of Southwest Colorado; he's been to Montrose, Norwood, Telluride and Dolores on a trip that began July Fourth.
He's been called a GOP Young Gun - the Idea Man - by supporters. He's also been called "too extreme for Colorado" by critics.
On Sunday, he said he's working push ideas of renewable energy on his sometimes-skeptical party and that Republicans should understand renewable energy is a "pretty good free-market principle."
Gardner supports oil seed used in bio-fuel production in Colorado - saying dry-land oil-seed farming would be phenomenal for the state's economy.
On March 1, he launched a campaign platform called the Four Corners plan.
The plan, he said, is built on economy, education, energy and the environment, to bring together the four corners of the state.
Although he has taken heat in the media for statements on personhood, abortion and birth control, as well as on immigration, energy and environmental policy, Gardner says he has appealed to members of opposing parties.
He has worked with No Labels and with a Democratic senator from West Virginia and a former governor of Utah to try to "cut through partisan gridlock."
He talked about caring for healthy forests and described himself as a Republican who wants to address conservation.
He said he's also working on college-tuition savings programs and extensions of existing programs that would help families save for tuition and help graduates pay off their loans.
Speaking about his reversal of positions on the "personhood amendment," which would grant rights to unborn fetuses, Gardner says a solution to many unwanted pregnancies could be found in making some birth-control options more easily available.
"In fact, we have asked the FDA to make common forms of more contraception available over-the-counter," he said.
"I am pro-life, but I think this election is about the economy and getting people back to work," he said.
bmathis@durangoherald.com