This story was updated at 6:30 p.m. with a response from the Hickenlooper campaign.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee laid Suncor Energy’s pollution problems at the feet of former Gov. John Hickenlooper Friday afternoon, saying the current Senate candidate, was looking the other way.

Hickenlooper is one of nine Democrats hoping to take on Republican incumbent Cory Gardner in November.

Suncor operates the only major petroleum refinery in the state in Commerce City. The company is set to pay a $9 million settlement to the Polis administration to resolve air pollution violations – the costliest payout over air quality violations in state history.

Corporations can’t give directly to campaigns, but known affiliates of the company so far have donated just $105 to Hickenlooper’s campaign in the current election cycle, according to the campaign finance watchdog website Open Secrets. By comparison, Suncor affiliates have given $395 to President Trump’s re-election effort, but nothing to Gardner.

Westword reported last year that in January 2018 Suncor asked the state health department to modify its permits to allow up to 25,600 pounds of hydrogen cyanide emissions a year. “Despite objections from Adams County Commissioners and north Denver community groups, then-Governor John Hickenlooper’s administration approved the permit modification,” Chase Woodruff reported.

“As mayor and Governor, Hickenlooper spent years handing out tax credits, going on taxpayer-funded trips to their Canadian facilities, and accepting Suncor event sponsorships and campaign donations,” the NRSC said in a statement Friday afternoon.

“In exchange his Administration repeatedly looked the other way and allowed Suncor to effectively set its own emission standards, which resulted in 8.5 tons of cyanide per year being released over low-income North Denver neighborhoods.”

Hickenlooper’s campaign pushed back Friday evening, noting that his administration fined Suncor $2.2 million in 2012 for leaking benzene, discovered in 2008 and 2009, and the next year the company settled for $1.9 million for the Sand Creek seepage in 2011.

The campaign provided a list of other clean-air accomplishment during Hickenlooper’s time in office, as well, including his nation-leading push for methane rules on polluters and his insistence on keeping Colorado on course with the goals of the Paris climate accords, after President Trump pulled the country out of the international pact to curb greenhouse gases.

“As governor, John Hickenlooper led the way and implemented some of the strongest environmental protections that later became a national model,” his campaign spokesman, Ammar Moussa, said Friday night.

“Now, as Donald Trump and Cory Gardner roll back those same pollution limits, Washington Republicans are lobbing desperate attacks to distract from Senator Gardner’s long record of selling out Colorado’s clean air and water while refusing to take action on climate change.”

Others have speculated on whether Hickenlooper’s mixed record of fracking and other climate issues could create doubts with Democratic voters in a crowded field. In a state that just went for Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday, Hickenlooper has a history as a business-minded moderate.

NRSC spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez stated Friday afternoon, “John Hickenlooper spent years standing by and allowing Suncor to violate emissions standards on his watch.”

Hickenlooper’s campaign sent out an “emergency fundraising drive” email calling out Trump and Gardner.

“Along with all the money and attention Trump’s visit will bring is another round of nasty, negative attacks on my character – right from the GOP playbook we’ve seen time and again,” Hickenlooper stated in the email.

“We have to fight back today. Cory Gardner may have the support of Trump’s re-election machine and McConnell’s right-wing donor network, but our campaign has something more powerful: lots of grassroots Democrats like you who are standing with us in this critical fight.”

An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed a quote to National Republican Committee, not the National Republican Senatorial Campaign.