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ProgressNow Colorado hailing drivers on Cory Gardner’s vote on clean-air rules

By JOEY BUNCH 12/15/2017 | updated 8 years ago

Honk, if you hate Cory.

That’s what the billboard along westbound Interstate 70 in Denver should say, and that would likely bring a smile to the face of Ian Silverii, leader of ProgressNow Colorado.

The state’s largest liberal advocacy group is the latest to use outdoor advertising to call out Republican Sen. Cory Gardner’s May vote to do away with an Obama-era rule that curbs methane gas emissions, a component of global warming and dirty air. Through Thursday, the video had been viewed more than 94,000 times and “liked” by more than 1,500 people.

The repeal effort failed when Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine voted with Democrats. Gardner remained neutral in the run-up to a decision.

After the bill’s demise, he said in a statement.”Colorado has one of the strictest regulations on methane emissions in the country. Our state is an example of what can be achieved when states work to find answers that best fit the needs of local interests, and the Colorado way will continue to be the standard.”

The federal rule was based on one that originated in Colorado to capture methane waste from oil and gas operations on public lands, but opponents saw it as costly bureaucracy.

Gardner won’t be up for re-election until 2020. So far, Boulder scientist Trish Zornio in the Democrats’ best likely consideration.

Gardner’s office did not have an immediate response to the ad. (This story will be prominentlyu updated if we hear back.)

ProgressNow said the billboard is expected to greet 214,000 travelers a week into January. The organization posted a video on its Facebook page two weeks ago around the same theme, a little girl playing outside while wearing a gas mask.

“Colorado voters need to know that Cory Gardner voted against clean air,” said ProgressNow Colorado executive director Ian Silverii. “Colorado has strong protections against wasteful methane emissions, which cost everyone money in lost revenues and contribute strongly to global climate change. Not only did Cory Gardner vote to undermine his own state’s sensible rules, this was a vote to hurt everyone in the West since air pollution doesn’t respect state lines.”

The advocacy groups Colorado Moms Know Best and Moms Clean Air Force put up a billboard against Gardner’s methane vote in Colorado Springs in June.

ProgressNow noted that a Colorado Colorado poll this year that indicated 83 percent of those surveyed in the state supported continuing the methane rule.

Silverii alleges Gardner sold out to the fossil fuel industry.

“Every year, millions of tons of methane from oil and gas production is vented into the atmosphere along with other toxic chemicals,” he said.

 
JOEY BUNCH

Reporter

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