GOP Senate Nom Touts Green Energy Law That Flopped And Was Repealed

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Rep. Cory Gardner, the Republican Senate candidate in Colorado, turned some heads in a new ad released this week in which he strode in front of a wind farm and boasted about his role in passing a law he credited with “launching our state’s green energy industry.”

The only problem, according to the Denver Post, is that the law Gardner is touting has since been repealed.

The Post reported that the law, which created a Clean Energy Development Authority, was repealed five years after it was passed in 2007. No energy projects were started by the authority and it routinely told the state legislature in annual reports that it had made no progress, according to the newspaper.

“(Gardner) introduced the legislation in good faith in order to do something,” Tom Plant, who oversaw the entity, told the Post. But he added that the law “made it impossible for us to ever issue bonds.”

In response to the Post’s report, a Gardner spokesman pointed out to TPM that the Democratic governor at the time praised the law and turned attention back to Sen. Mark Udall (D), whom Gardner is challenging.

“It’s a remarkable turn of events that Mark Udall is now criticizing Cory Gardner for supporting renewable energy and fighting for Colorado’s green energy economy,” Gardner spokesman Matt Connelly said in a statement. “It may be tough for a do-nothing senator like Mark Udall to understand, but Coloradans expect their elected officials to put forth bold proposals and that’s exactly what Cory Gardner did and will continue to do.”

Political observers in Colorado expect energy and environmental issues to be central to the Senate campaign there. Gardner has talked up his green energy bonafides in recent days, while outside environmental groups have attacked his past statements expressing skepticism about man-made climate change.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: