Gardner’s Latest Ad Fishes for Approval, But Coloradans Won’t Take the Bait

Dubbed One of LCV’s “Dirty Dozen,” Gardner Has Spent Millions Trying to Hide From His Long Anti-Environment Record 

Green energy? More like greenwashing.

After failing to deliver COVID relief again, Senator Cory Gardner is out with *yet another* campaign ad attempting to deceive voters about his anti-environmental record. And yet again, Coloradans aren’t taking the bait.

State Representative Dylan Roberts was quick to call out Gardner’s posing as an angler, but once again, Gardner is all rod, no reel:

“While Coloradans are stuck waiting for Washington to act on COVID relief, Senator Gardner is running yet another deceptive ad ignoring the crisis and his long anti-environmental record,” said Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson Eli Rosen. “Coloradans aren’t taking the bait and won't be fooled by Gardner's election year attempt to greenwash his record of selling out our public lands and environment while refusing to act on climate change.”

A recent National Journal report revealed that while the renewable energy sector has been hit hard from the pandemic, Gardner made empty promises and “failed” to get anything done to support the clean energy economy.

Like Gardner’s last two greenwashing ads, his new deceptive spot again ignores Gardner’s own record of being a rubber stamp for Trump’s toxic environmental agenda -- earning him a spot on LCV’s “Dirty Dozen” list. 

• Gardner was called out by CPR, the Durango Herald, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, and Colorado Politics for using the Land and Water Conservation Fund like “armor” to shield him from his own anti-environmental voting record. 

• Gardner has a failing lifetime score of 11% from the League of Conservation Voters, earning him a spot on their “Dirty Dozen” list.
  
• Gardner supported cutting millions from the Land and Water Conservation Fund as recently as 2018 and has voted to virtually eliminate funding for the program, slashing it by at least 90%.
  
• Gardner refuses to support the CORE Act -- a major wilderness bill to protect 400,000 acres of public land that passed the House last fall. But the bill is “unlikely to see the light of day in the Senate” without Gardner’s support, and he recently decried the collaborative legislation as “a partisan, political tool,” despite widespread grassroots support.  

• Designation of new Colorado wilderness has been left out of every major public lands bill to pass the Senate during Gardner’s tenure. This week, E&E News revealed that Gardner “never responded to follow-up requests” about changes he requested to the CORE Act bill, showing he is “unserious” about protecting wilderness.

• Gardner voted for the GOP tax scam, which gave massive tax breaks to Big Oil, and stood by as a loophole gave billions in handouts to oil companies.
  
• For over a year, Gardner has repeatedly refused to take a stance on Trump’s anti-conservation pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management, William Perry Pendley, who has proposed selling off public lands, opposed public lands and wildlife protections, and has a long history of xenophobia and climate science denial. 

• Gardner has supported Trump’s anti-environment nominees like Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler, who’ve overseen the largest rollback of protected public lands in U.S. history, dismantled efforts to fight climate change and gutted clean water protections.

• Gardner voted for a resolution that tried to undermine the Paris Climate talks. He was silent when Trump pulled the United States out of the global agreement to fight climate change.

• Gardner opposed limits on methane pollution modeled after Colorado’s own standards.
  
• Gardner has a long record of voting against Colorado’s public lands, from trying to limit new protections to blocking local input on land management.

• Gardner voted to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling for the first time ever.