Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a longtime fracking proponent, confirmed Wednesday he met with presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton about possibly becoming her running mate.
“If you look at the challenges that this country and the world faces right now, if you’re someone who’s asked, that you’re one of the people that can really make a difference and your country needs you, of course you take it seriously,” Hickenlooper told Bloomberg TV.
The governor did not elaborate on the nature of the conversation, except to say they spent “most of the time” discussing topics such as how to transition workers from areas with poor job prospects to thriving industries. Clinton is expected to announce her running mate shortly after the July 25 Democratic National Convention.
Hickenlooper, for his part, has been quite open about his support of fracking, even as Colorado’s environmentalists and greens badger him about his views on natural gas, as well as his generally negative opinion of regulations hampering fracking.
He said in an April talk in Denver that the Environmental Protection Agency should halt its new overarching regulations on ozone levels.
“So, I think it would be a great idea if they suspended the standard,” the governor said at the time. “I mean, just with the background [ozone emissions], if you’re not going to be able to conform to a standard like this, you are leaving the risk or the possibility that there will be penalties of one sort or another that come from your lack of compliance.”
