Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is slated to participate in a February fundraiser in Colorado at the residence of former Obama Administration Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, as reported by Colorado Politics.
The fundraiser is strategically timed just weeks before “Super Tuesday,” when 16 states and U.S. territories, including Colorado, will participate in the Democratic Primary on March 3.
The event will be hosted by Salazar, offering tickets at prices ranging from $500 to $2,800 per plate.
After endorsing the former Vice President last September, Salazar told MSNBC, “Joe is a uniter, he is results oriented, and we need to have him in the White House today because the country more than ever before needs someone who can unite our country… I know how effective he is at delivering results for the American people.”
Joe Biden’s visit to Colorado, a significant oil and gas-producing state, coincides with heightened attention on climate change and fossil fuel production, both in the Democratic primary and the Colorado State Legislature.
In April, during a campaign rally in Aurora, Colorado, fellow Democratic Presidential Candidate Elizabeth Warren committed to stopping drilling for new oil and gas development on federal lands through an Executive Order. In September, Bernie Sanders, another contender for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, rallied in Denver against “fossil fuel billionaires” and advocated for “aggressive” and “far-reaching” climate change policies.
Biden himself recently expressed support for the imprisonment of fossil fuel executives during a New Hampshire town hall last month. The issues of climate change and fossil fuel production have become central themes in the Democratic primary and continue to be prominent in discussions within the Colorado State Legislature.
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“Number two, holding them liable for what they have done,” he said in reference to fossil fuel executives during remarks about climate change, “particularly in those cases where your underserved neighborhoods and – you know the deal, ok. And by the way, when they don’t want to deliver, put them in jail. I’m not joking about this.”
In September, Vice President Biden faced controversy during a televised CNN Townhall when questioned about the host of an upcoming fundraiser, Andrew Goldman, who is a co-founder of a fossil fuel company. Goldman, a former adviser to Biden during his time as a U.S. Senator, is associated with Western LNG, a natural gas producer. Biden appeared unsure about the question concerning support from Goldman.
Despite the heightened rhetoric in this election cycle, Ken Salazar has maintained a pragmatic approach to supporting oil and natural gas since leaving his position as head of the Interior Department in 2013.
In 2018, Salazar joined forces with fellow Colorado Democrats Governor Jared Polis and John Hickenlooper (now running for the Democratic Senate nomination) in opposing Proposition 112.
The ballot measure aimed to enforce 2,500-foot setbacks of oil and gas operations from homes, schools, and other buildings statewide, potentially restricting most of Colorado’s land for production. Proposition 112 ultimately failed by a margin of 44-54 percent.
“Number one, if it were to pass it’s fundamentally, in my view, unconstitutional,” Salazar said in 2018, as Western Wire reported. “It’s a regulatory taking that I don’t think anybody wants to bite into, so I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
During the event, Salazar also characterized the anti-oil and gas proposal as impractical.
“We have to come up with practical solutions that aren’t way off the map in the way the 2,500-foot setback proposal is,” he said at the time.
Salazar also voiced opposition to SB-181, a state bill that revamped Colorado’s state oil and gas regulations, deeming it “too extreme” in a Denver Post Op-Ed.
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