A Zero is Not OK: Some Colorado Representatives are Failing Us on Energy

With ballots hitting millions of Colorado mailboxes last week, it can be tough to sift through the countless resources voters now have (or receive) when casting their votes. Perhaps too much information can be a bad thing.

But with energy touching nearly every facet of every business, it’s arguable that energy is the most important indicator of a candidate’s alignment with business interests. How our elected leaders vote on energy and environmental issues, and the impact it has on our personal pocketbook and a business’s bottom line, says a lot.

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The American Energy Alliance (AEA), a not-for-profit organization, and its American Energy Scorecard is becoming a go-to source for understanding where our elected members of Congress stand.

The website is simple and only requires a visitor to click on a state or type in a zip code to pull up scores.

While history indicates the party of the sitting incumbent president should lose seats in the House and Senate during the 2022 midterm election, as the leader of the Democratic party, President Joe Biden doesn’t carry the responsibility of how individual elected leaders vote in their respective chambers.

To be honest, it doesn’t look too pretty for the Democratic party here in Colorado.

Aea 2022 Scorecard Colorado

While many members failed to achieve a perfect score for various reasons, the most concerning scores are from those representing districts or states where the energy industry is a major economic driver and job creator like Colorado. Colorado’s energy industry contributes billions to our state’s economy and supports hundreds of thousands of reliable, good jobs.

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Some of our elected leaders in Colorado scored 0%, putting them at the very bottom of the body.

It also cannot be considered an accident. AEA notifies all members in advance of votes they will be scored.  A member disagreeing with AEA’s position on one or two votes might be understandable, but four of our U.S. House Representatives look like they didn’t even show up. A zero is not OK in Colorado. Representatives DeGette, Neguse, Crow and Perlmutter have some explaining to do. Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper, you’re next.

While social issues can, and always will, remain subjective, economic factors are often more concrete and one of the most important, telling indicators for the business community is the price of energy. The price at the pump, almost doubling in the last two years, is just one of the main reminders we receive daily. And while the war in Ukraine, outrageous energy prices in Europe and China’s role in climate change may seem like distant topics, they, along with countless other issues, all affect the price of energy here in Colorado.

Before voters and business owners in Colorado cast their ballots, they ought to know where their representatives stand on affordable energy.

View the full Energy Scorecard and its methodology at AmericanEnergyAlliance.org/american-energy-scorecard.

 

Jon Haubert Hb Legacy Media Co 2Jon Haubert is the publisher of ColoradoBiz magazine. Email him at [email protected].