ap

Skip to content
Denver Post city desk reporter Kieran ...
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:
Getting your player ready...

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, in Colorado Friday to speak in Denver and Colorado Springs, briefly touched on a local hot button issue — fracking.

During an interview with KUSA Channel 9’s Brandon Rittiman, Trump responded to direct questions on fracking.

“I’m in favor of fracking,” Trump said in a segment which was posted on Twitter, but he also said Friday that “voters should have a say” in whether to allow fracking locally.

In May, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled against Front Range municipalities efforts to limit oil and gas development in close proximity or residential areas, ruling state powers trump local measures in regulating the industry.

The court overturned Fort Collins’ five-year moratorium on fracking within the city limits, in part, citing municipal efforts as “invalid and unenforceable.”

“Fracking is something that we need. Fracking is something that is here whether we like it or not,” Trump said. “But if a municipality or a state wants to ban fracking I can understand that.”

Despite the court ruling, residents and environmental groups in Colorado continue to pursue measures in hope of slowing, or limiting, fracking. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry in the state remains firm in its efforts to defend, and grow, fracking.

“Developing oil and gas resources in Colorado can be a complex issue that doesn’t lend itself well to sound bites,” said Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, in a statement to The Denver Post. “In Colorado, the state Supreme Court has declared that local governments cannot ban fracking. Instead, the industry is regulated by the state under the most rigorous rules in the country.”

 

RevContent Feed

More in Politics