Golden – Calling President Bush a hypocrite and a warmonger, about 75 protesters shouted from a distance Tuesday as the president toured Golden’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
“Bush is just creating another spin story, with his sudden epiphany about supporting alternative sources of energy,” said Richard Andrews, 60, an environmental engineer from Boulder.
He complained that the government’s spending on alternative energy is only a tiny fraction of its military spending.
Andrews and the other protesters spent the sunny but cold morning on a street corner about a third of a mile from NREL, held there by security officials. They never saw the president and his entourage, who arrived and left in military helicopters. They were left to point their signs skyward and shout their slogans over the roar of the choppers’ jet turbines.
T.J. Bowen, 26, held up one end of a very large cloth sign stating “No Blood for Oil,” decrying the deaths of American soldiers in oil-rich Iraq.
“It’s illegal,” said Bowen, a swimming coach in Arvada. “It’s a violation of the Geneva Convention. Bush is a warmonger, and we need to bring the troops home.”
Added Carolyn Bninski, 56: “This war is about securing the world’s oil. It’s immoral to attack a country without approval from the U.N. Security Council. The United States wants to control all of the Middle East because of its oil.”
Across the street, at the intersection of Denver West Parkway and Denver West Drive, Drew Edmondson, 56, and Dick Carter, 68, tugged at opposite ends of another anti-war sign.
“Bush cut $20 million from NREL’s budget, then had the audacity to show up here on a public-relations tour,” said Carter, a retired airline pilot. “He’s not interested in conserving energy at all. This is all just PR.”
Soon after the helicopters were in the air and reporters began to close their notebooks, the protesters quickly climbed into their cars and turned the heaters on.
Jefferson County authorities said there were no reports of disturbances and no arrests were made.
Staff writer Mike McPhee can be reached at 303-820-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com.
