BOULDER — The three Democratic candidates for the 2nd Congressional District seat vowed Tuesday night to support renewable energy technology, provide incentives to change polluting habits and encourage population and emissions reductions in developing countries.
In a race that’s grown heated over campaign finance and disclosures, the three at the University of Colorado at Boulder debate largely lined up together on energy issues, although they varied on some details.
Voters are “lucky in terms of choices. It’s not like there’s someone up here who’s really bad on this stuff,” said candidate and veteran environmentalist Will Shafroth, who got a laugh from the hundreds of students and community members gathered for the faceoff.
Perhaps the greatest difference of the night was businessman Jared Polis’ promise to refuse to use congressional earmarks for special projects in Colorado, a move his opponents, former state Senate leader Joan Fitz-Gerald and Shafroth, did not support.
When discussing environmental issues, “we’re really talking about taking on the oil and gas industry,” said Polis, pegging the issue as a critical part of his energy plan. “We should not be basing our decisions on what lobbyist is friends with what legislator.”
Shafroth and Fitz-Gerald said they would take advantage of earmarks to bring dollars home to continue developing renewable energy technology in their district, but they favor a more transparent earmark process.
Fitz-Gerald won applause for her support of family planning education in developing nations to curb population growth and carbon emissions — a stance echoed by her competitors.
“The next administration has got to take off the global gag rule,” she said, referring to President Bush’s reliance on abstinence-only education in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.
Touting her hand in reshaping the state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to include environmentalists and her voting record’s high ranking among conservationist groups, Fitz-Gerald tried to distinguish herself as more experienced in working across political lines.
Calling the environment one of the “defining issues of our time,” Shafroth said it would be his most important project as a congressman. His campaign has cast his energy plan as a notch more aggressive than those of his competitors.
Shafroth, with more than 25 years of environmental leadership in the public and private sectors, pledged to “go back to Washington and fight for what we need to fight for around renewable energy.”
