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Despite ballot battle, Gov. Ritter promotes natural gas
Herald Denver Bureau
Photo by JOE HANEL/Herald
DENVER - Even though Gov. Bill Ritter wants to raise taxes on the natural-gas industry, he drove around Tuesday in a car powered by Colorado's most plentiful fossil fuel.
"You don't have to have a petroleum-based vehicle to get around. Natural gas is a cleaner-burning non-renewable resource. It emits fewer hydrocarbons," Ritter said.
The photo-op was a slight change in tone for the governor, who is quick to promote wind and solar power - he even wore a silver tie Tuesday that he had custom printed with a windmill design. But he often says Coloradans are "doing our part" in supplying natural gas to the nation.
Ritter is locked in a multimillion-dollar battle with the gas industry over his Amendment 58, which would eliminate a tax credit for gas and oil companies.
"I'm glad that Governor Ritter sees the value of natural gas to the state of Colorado," said Dan Hopkins, spokesman for the anti-58 campaign. "Now if he only wasn't proposing such a massive tax hike on natural gas, it would be even better."
Ritter saw no contradiction.
"What we're doing is removing a tax credit from an industry that is experiencing record profits," he said.
Amendment 58 would eliminate the tax credit gas companies get for paying local property taxes or for operating low-producing wells.
The amendment would raise an estimated $321 million next year, to be split among college scholarships, land preservation and renewable energy.
Clean Energy loaned Ritter the natural gas-powered Grand Marquis for the day. The company was founded by oilman T. Boone Pickens, who is running TV ads promoting his "Pickens Plan" to convert cars to natural gas to reduce oil imports.
Ritter said Pickens' plan has some merits, but he doesn't fully subscribe to it.
Cars need special equipment to run on natural gas instead of gasoline, which comes from oil. Unlike oil, most of the country's natural gas is produced domestically. When burned, natural gas emits less carbon dioxide than oil.
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