{"id":119201,"date":"2014-07-08T23:51:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T05:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gardner-fracking-ban-would-be-job-killer\/"},"modified":"2014-07-08T23:51:49","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T05:51:49","slug":"gardner-fracking-ban-would-be-job-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gardner-fracking-ban-would-be-job-killer\/","title":{"rendered":"Gardner: Fracking ban would be job killer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, seeking to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, visited Durango on Sunday, and spoke with the Herald's editorial board.<\/span>JENNAYE DERGE\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

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 \u201covernight\u201d in a visit to Durango on Sunday.<\/p>\n

His \u201call-of-the-above energy policy\u201d relies on fracking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf an energy ban were to take place in this state, you would lose 120,000 jobs overnight,\u201d he said. \u201cTwelve billion dollars in economic activity would walk away and $1 billion in tax revenues that builds roads and schools in this state.<\/p>\n

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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gardner, a 40-year-old Republican from Yuma, was in Durango on a tour of Southwest Colorado; he\u2019s been to Montrose, Norwood, Telluride and Dolores on a trip that began July Fourth.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been called a GOP Young Gun \u2013 the Idea Man \u2013 by supporters. He\u2019s also been called \u201ctoo extreme for Colorado\u201d by critics.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, he said he\u2019s working push ideas of renewable energy on his sometimes-skeptical party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ought to be talking about good conservation policy,\u201d he said. \u201cGood environmental policy and renewable energy. Ways that we can embrace an all-of the-above energy without just talking about gas and oil, but also renewable energy, like wind and solar.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Republicans should understand renewable energy is a \u201cpretty good free-market principle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gardner supports oil seed used in bio-fuel production in Colorado \u2013 saying dry-land oil-seed farming would be phenomenal for the state\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

On March 1, he launched a campaign platform called the Four Corners plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say that Colorado is red or blue, but I\u2019ve never looked at it that way,\u201d he said at The Durango Herald on Sunday. \u201cColorado is a state that reacts to people who can get things done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan, he said, is built on economy, education, energy and the environment, to bring together the four corners of the state.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He has worked with No Labels and with a Democratic senator from West Virginia and a former governor of Utah to try to \u201ccut through partisan gridlock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave me their first seal of approval for this campaign because of work we\u2019ve done across the aisle to bring solutions to both sides,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s been working with Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., on an energy-efficiency savings program that finds ways for the federal government to reduce its own energy use.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could save $20 billion if they were more efficient,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also working with U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D- Mich., to seek out government waste and overlapping programs and to reduce those expenditures.<\/p>\n

He talked about caring for healthy forests and described himself as a Republican who wants to address conservation.<\/p>\n

Gardner supports immigration legislation with U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, that would grant citizenship through service in the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can think of no higher affirmation or loyalty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he is also working on college-tuition savings programs and extensions of existing programs that would help families save for tuition and help college graduates pay off their loans.<\/p>\n

Speaking about his reversal of positions on the \u201cpersonhood amendment,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, we have asked the FDA to make common forms of more contraception available over-the-counter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pro-life, but I think this election is about the economy and getting people back to work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Over-the-counter birth control would take the politics out of the argument, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to shake things up a bit,\u201d Gardner said, saying sleep is for November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got two kids \u2013 2\u00c2\u00bd and 10. This fight? A $17 trillion dollar debt? An economy that is lagging? We have to do better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

bmathis@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Udall’s opponent calls for over-the-counter birth control<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[13,308,307],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-119201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-elections","tag-u-s-sen-mark-udall"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119201"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=119201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}