Energy industry executives criticized Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump Tuesday in Colorado for his inability to gauge the kind of headwinds the fracking industry is forced to endure.
Lynn Peterson, the head of Synergy Resources, told Trump during the meeting that giving control over fracking to locals would essentially sign the energy industry’s death knell in Colorado.
Trump also received push back from a trusted source, Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, who said Trump lacks a clear understanding on the issue for the industry. Cramer also said he has struggled to get Trump to clarify his position on local fracking bans.
“I don’t know if he’s clarified that or not, but that’s where I would encourage him to have some clarification,” Cramer said in an interview Monday. The North Dakota lawmaker is currently dealing with a protester-led campaign to torpedo an enormous, $3.8 billion natural gas pipeline.
The North Dakota Republican also expressed concerns local bans violate the U.S. Constitution.
“I think there’s constitutional questions … about whether or not a municipality can ban [fracking],” Cramer said. “Reasonable regulation is one thing, but banning something that violates somebody’s opportunity on their own property I think is a bigger problem.”
Trump reassured the industry in July that he supports hydraulic fracturing, but, at the same time, believes drilling should be up to local voters to decide.
“Well, I’m in favor of fracking, but voters should have a big say in it. Some areas maybe they don’t want to have fracking. And I think if the voters are voting for it, that’s up to them,” Trump told reporters Friday while at a campaign stop in Colorado.
Trump’s comments hit an exposed nerve in Colorado, a state that has been beating back anti-fracking activists throughout the year.
Two Colorado cities — Longmont and Fort Collins — claimed in May that state law doesn’t explicitly permit fracking, so a ban was not an illegal procedure. The energy industry managed to defeat the cities proposal through the Colorado Supreme Court.
Trump, for his part, focused mostly on regulations affecting the fracking industry and tried to avoid talk of local bans. The New York Republican also reminded the audience of oil CEOs that his opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, will likely “put you out of business.”
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