Washington D.C. – The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund, which works to elect pro-environment candidates, announced its endorsement of John Hickenlooper for election to the U.S. Senate from Colorado.

“Governor John Hickenlooper took action to make Colorado a leader in tackling the climate crisis, including reducing methane pollution and joining the U.S. Climate Alliance after President Trump’s disastrous decision to pull us out of the Paris Climate Agreement — while Cory Gardner tried to undermine Colorado’s progress,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, LCV Action Fund Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. “When Governor Hickenlooper was working to protect Coloradans’ clean air, clean water and beautiful public lands, Cory Gardner was doing the dirty work for Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell and their extreme pro-polluter agenda. No matter what Gardner’s ads say now, the choice is clear. We are proud to endorse John Hickenlooper for the U.S. Senate because he will fight for Colorado’s families and environment.”

“Colorado deserves a Senator who will take bold, just climate action based on science and work to protect our precious public lands, clean air and water,” said Conservation Colorado Executive Director Kelly Nordini. “Coloradans won’t be fooled by Cory Gardner’s cynical election year ploys — he has consistently sold out our air, water and public lands and refuses to support the CORE Act. Governor John Hickenlooper is the only candidate with the vision and the commitment to fight to protect the Colorado we all love.”

“Here in Colorado, we showed the nation how we can tackle climate change by passing gold-standard methane regulations and replacing coal-fired power plants with wind and solar,” said John Hickenlooper. “Working hand in hand with LCV Action Fund and a growing coalition of Colorado conservation advocates, we’ll bring even more urgency to Washington to take real action on climate change, protect our public lands, and build a just and equitable clean energy economy that works for everyone instead of just the special interests.”

John Hickenlooper was elected the mayor of Denver in 2003. As mayor, Hickenlooper gained bipartisan support for a $4.7 billion mass-transit project that brought a light rail system to Denver. He also signed the Kyoto Protocols in 2005 to reduce climate emissions and launched a regional initiative to plant 1 million trees in 20 years in the Denver metro area. After serving two terms as Mayor, Hickenlooper ran for governor in 2010 and was reelected in 2014.  During his tenure as governor, he implemented the first methane capture regulations for oil and gas companies in the United States.  He was also one of several leaders who committed to continuing progress toward greenhouse gas emissions goals when Trump announced that the U.S. would leave the Paris Climate Accord. As part of that commitment, he announced several steps including cutting carbon from the utility sector, investing in electric vehicle infrastructure, working with local governments, and more. As governor, he doubled renewable energy requirements for rural electric cooperatives and oversaw the retirement of two coal plants and their transition to renewable energy and battery storage. He also made land and water conservation a high priority, creating the Outdoor Recreation Industry Office and protecting the Thompson Divide from oil and gas drilling.

As a U.S. Senate candidate, Hickenlooper has outlined his climate priorities, focused on a transition to a 100 percent renewable energy economy with net-zero emissions as soon as possible. Hickenlooper will fight to ensure equity as we tackle climate change so that the communities most impacted have a seat at the table in developing equitable climate solutions. He will work to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, and fight for stricter standards on methane pollution and other emissions, dramatically accelerate the deployment of wind and solar energy, and work to reverse President Trump and Senator Gardner’s anti-environmental policies. He will advocate to raise fuel economy standards with the goal of moving to a 100% electric vehicle fleet and create a new Climate Corps Program. He will be a champion for the CORE Act and to increase access to and equity in the outdoors, including diversifying the workforce within the National Park Service and associated agencies.

That is why LCV Action Fund and LCV’s thousands of  members and supporters in Colorado are all-in to elect John Hickenlooper and defeat Senator Cory Gardner, who has an abysmal 11% lifetime score on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard. In the first three years of the Trump administration Gardner backed the president’s extreme policies over 98% of the time, according to CQ Roll Call. Gardner has taken $1.7 million in contributions from corporate polluters. He consistently votes against clean air and clean water protections, voted to undermine NEPA, voted to cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by a third and put a coal lobbyist in charge of the EPA, and, despite recent attempts to look good in an election year, has a record of selling out public lands. Gardner refuses to support the bipartisan CORE Act which would protect 400,000 acres of public lands in Colorado and has not opposed Trump’s nomination of anti-public lands bigot William Perry Pendley to head the Bureau of Land Management. Gardner’s full anti-environmental voting record can be found here.

About LCV Action Fund

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund, the connected federal political action committee (PAC) of the League of Conservation Voters, works to elect leaders who stand up for a clean, healthy environment and to defeat anti-environment candidates who oppose climate action. Since the 1990 election cycle, LCVAF has helped elect and re-elect 90 U.S. Senators and 450 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Over the last several years, our efforts have also helped elevate climate change and clean energy as critical issues in key elections.

###

Paid for by the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund and authorized by Hickenlooper for Colorado.