In a desperate attempt to please everyone about everything to get reelected, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet has inadvertently created yet another schism in the Democratic Party, this time over the fate of the Colowyo mine.
Bennet was missing in action after Judge R. Brooke Jackson’s ruling that the feds didn’t do enough public input when they approved the mine permit a zillion years ago.
After a flood of letters and protests from U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton and Sen. Cory Gardner, an avalanche of outrage from the community, and the justified boycott of a beer never-to-be-named again, Bennet’s staff realized the senator was up for reelection should maybe say something. Now that he has, the Colorado Independent is asking why?
Initially, Bennet did not support the Department of the Interior asking for an appeal and did not want to interfere with the legal proceedings. So, why did he pen a letter with Gardner and Tipton?
“There is a limited window here. We want to make sure that the Interior Department is going to meet that window,” said the senator’s communications director Adam Bozzi.
Let’s parse, shall we?
Essentially, what Bozzi is saying is that Bennet cares about red tape, not the people who live in the northwest region of the state he is supposed to represent. The sole reason that Bennet added his so-called support was not to save jobs and families, it was merely to make sure the Interior Department stuck to the same bureaucratic process that caused this mess in the first place.
And what does Wildearth Guardians, the bringers of doom in this case think of Bennet’s actions? The politician is just trying to appease his constituents, who by the way are WRONG.
“He’s not writing anybody off. That’s part of the calculus here. I wish he would step up and show a little bit of leadership here instead of joining the knee-jerk reaction with Gardner,” said Jeremy Nichols of Wildearth Guardians.
“They (the Department of the Interior) didn’t appeal and there is nothing they can do about it now.”
“My initial response is tough shit.”
Wildearth Guardians might have been disappointed with Bennet’s decision to speak up on behalf of bureaucratic process, but if that process leads to closing the mine and destroying families, we expect all will be forgiven.
Coal is dead.
The mine is going to close: sooner or later.
It might as well be sooner.
Devastating for greater Craig.
Good for Colorado.