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FALL ELECTION ISSUE 2012 Colorado currents are you a clean water voter? The environmental stakes have never been higher than in this year’s elections. The next President and Congress — and the leaders who are elected at the state and local levels this fall — can do much to restore the nation’s commitment to clean air and water and healthy communities. The right leadership can make sure the United States is positioned to reap the full economic and job creation benefits that will come from smart investment in a clean energy and clean water future. The past two years brought more attacks on fundamental protections than ever before. The U.S. House led the way — backwards — voting more than three hundred times to dismantle the Clean Water Act, weaken clean air protections, strip funding from environmental protection programs, effectively dismantle the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and more. Without the U.S. Senate and veto threats from President Obama to stop these bills from becoming law, the results would have been disastrous. Too many officials have been carrying the polluters’ agenda and turning their backs on the people they were elected to represent — perhaps thinking they could get away with it. Clean Water Action members like you can make sure that does not happen. You can help hold our elected officials accountable for their actions with your votes this November 6. This special issue of Clean Water Currents provides information on Clean Water Action’s nonpartisan candidate endorsements for 2012. All endorsements are based on a careful review of the candidates’ records and positions, their responses to questionnaires on key issues, and, in many cases, in-person interviews and recommendations from local and national staff, allies and volunteers. Continued on page 2 CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF inside: . Colorado Endorements, page 3 . Big Oil Fat Cat, page 3 . Postcards, page 4 . Don't Frack Denver's Water, page 4 . Oil Shale, page 4 . How Did Your Reps. and Senators Vote?, pages 5 and 6 ACTION FOR CLEAN WATER www.CleanWaterAction.org Colorado Currents | Fall Election Issue 2012 are you a clean water voter? continued from page 1 PRESIDENTIAL ENDORSEMENT: Throughout the 2012 campaign season, Clean This April, Clean Water Water Action: Action joined with other national environmental Educates its members about critical issues. groups in an unprecedent- Provides information on candidates and ed early endorsement ballot initiatives before voters. of PRESIDENT OBAMA’s re-election. President Obama’s record in his Spotlights the records and positions of first term has been stronger than any other in endorsed candidates, with special attention decades, and his leadership has been essential to environmental “heroes” deserving in stopping the train wreck of anti-environ- re-election and environmental “zeroes” mental bills moving through Congress. The Romney-Ryan ticket would be an environmental whose anti-environment records are disaster, if elected. Rep. Ryan led the attack on unacceptably poor. the Clean Water Act and other water and health Mobilizes Clean Water Action voters to protections in Congress, and Gov. Romney has committed to an agenda of weakening environ- make sure they vote for Clean Water Action’s mental laws and extending special treatment endorsed candidates on election day. and expanding government subsidies for the Clean Water Action’s 2011-12 scorecard (see p. 5) nation’s worst polluters. provides additional detail on U.S. House and Senate The stakes are equally high in contests for U.S. voting records for those states where Clean Water Senate, U.S. House, and in many races for state leg- islature, governor’s races and more local offices. Action has the largest numbers of members. Be a Clean Water Voter: LEARN about the candidates’ records and positions, Clean Water Action’s endorsements and any ballot measures before voters this fall. REGISTER and VOTE for the candidates and positions endorsed by Clean Water Action. DONATE to help Clean Water Action reach and turn out more pro-environment voters to support endorsed candidates and hold others accountable. Donate online at www.CleanWater.org/donate VOLUNTEER by joining with Clean Water Action staff in your state to make phone calls, distribute literature, and mobilize voters in the days leading up to election day. Contact the office nearest you to volunteer. 2 Colorado | Fall Election Issue 2012 www.CleanWaterAction.org clean water action 2012 election endorsements Clean Water Action announced endorsements for Congressional candidates Sal Pace from Colorado’s 3rd District and Joe Mikloisi from the 6th District. Pueblo State Rep. Sal Pace is running to unseat first-term anti-environment U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton from Cortez, in a close race for Colorado’s 3rd District. The district includes the majority of the western slope. Pace has built a solid environmental record in his time in the Colorado House of Representatives and is concerned with the environmental issues that are important to the western slope. He wants to see conservation efforts to protect the region’s outdoor recreation-based economy and recognizes the critical importance of protecting the headwaters of the Colorado, Arkansas, and Rio Grande rivers. Aurora’s State Rep. Joe Miklosi is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman to represent Colorado’s 6th District in Congress. The seat was recently redistricted to include the eastern Denver suburbs of Aurora and Brighton. In the Colorado House of Representatives, Miklosi has been a strong supporter of Amendment 37 for the renewable energy standard. Miklosi wants to continue building Colorado’s clean energy economy by bringing more wind and solar renewable energy companies to the state. Miklosi is also very concerned with preserving and conserving the state’s valuable water resources. The incumbents in both of these races have sided with the extreme anti-environment faction in the U.S. House in their assault on the nation’s most important clean water and environmental health protections. Both hit rock-bottom with “zero” scores on Clean Water Action’s most recent Congressional scorecard (see page 5). big oil fat cat The Big Oil Fat Cat made an appearance at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo this August. Gary Wockner, Clean Water Action’s Program Director, brought the Fat Cat out to hold Congressman Scott Tipton accountable for his repeated support for Big Oil and natural gas companies. Congressman Tipton received more than $167,000 in dirty energy money, and in return he has voted six times to keep Big Oil subsidies in place. He also sponsored a bill to require new energy development plans from the Interior Department every four years, putting renewable energy at a disadvantage. www.CleanWaterAction.org Colorado Currents | Fall Election Issue 2012 3 clean water postcards for the governor In late September, Clean Water Action hand- delivered 1,000 postcards to Gov. Hickenlooper’s office. The cards were collected door-to-door during a six-week period in the Denver area. The campaign educated residents about drilling and fracking and on rules being developed that could create more protective setback standards. Clean Water Action member signed cards urging the Governor to protect air quality and property values by increasing the minimum distance allowed between drill sites and homes or schools. “don’t frack denver’s water!” Oil Shale on the Western Slope Clean Water Action is about to launch a new “Don’t Frack Denver’s Water!” campaign. Oil and gas companies are looking to lease public lands in Park County, Colorado, at the headwaters of the South Platte River. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is respon- Oil shale is not oil. Oil shale and shale oil sible for protecting these areas, which are near are two very different things. Oil shale is the Antero, Spinney and Eleven Mile reservoirs, a rock found in Wyoming, western Colorado, which supply drinking water to nearly two mil- lion people in the metro Denver area. and Utah. It has to be mined and heated to Don’t want cancer causing frack chemicals flow- 700 degrees — for months or even years — to be ing into drinking water sources or the South melted and processed into a low-grade crude oil. Platte River? Join Clean Water Action in urging This process can use as much as 123 billion gallons the Colorado BLM to prepare a “Master Leasing of water — too much to risk on an unproven Plan” for the South Park Basin. The plan should have broad support from communities and technology. With nearly 98% of Colorado facing citizens along the Front Range to guarantee pro- drought conditions in 2012 it makes no sense to tection of Denver’s drinking water. Clean Water squander precious water resources on risky Action’s campaign will educate and engage Den- fossil fuel development schemes. ver area members and the public so their voices are heard on this important issue. 4 Colorado Currents | Fall Election Issue 2012 www.CleanWaterAction.org How Did Your Representatives and Senators Vote? Clean Water Action has spent much of the past two years defending against an all-out assault in Congress. Fundamental environmental and health protections — highly successful laws such as the Clean Water Act — are under attack. How serious is this situation? So far the U.S. House has considered — and actually voted to pass — more than 300 measures that would weaken clean water, clean air and health protection. Fortunately, the worst of these were turned back in the Senate, with the help of veto threats by President Obama. To help Clean Water Action members and others understand what has been going on, the organization tracks key votes and compiles scorecards. This latest scorecard covers votes from 2011-12. Members of Congress who have sided with the pollut- ers and against protecting water and health must be held accountable.

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