Colorado Bid to Block Oil Drilling Muddies Political Lines
- D.J. basin explorers anxious about measure to curb development
- Democrat Jared Polis distances self from anti-drilling effort
Representative Jared Polis
Photographer: David Banks/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Colorado’s Democratic candidate for governor once bankrolled efforts to restrict fracking. Now, he’s working hard to reassure the state’s oil explorers that he’s on their side.
A ballot proposal to limit drilling in the state has sent stocks of oil and gas producers on a roller coaster ride during the past month. U.S. Representative Jared Polis, running for the state’s top office, has come out strongly against the proposal, defying his own party. His opposition highlights what’s at stake for the energy industry, which is pumping record volumes of oil and gas as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling propel Colorado into the upper echelon of shale producers.