From the Denver Business Journal
Donald Trump met last week with several Colorado oil and gas executives in Denver to talk about energy issues.
According to 9News political reporter Brandon Rittiman, who was on the scene for the start of the meeting, executives on an invitation list to the 10 a.m. roundtable discussion include Chip Rimer, executive vice president of Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL); Lynn Peterson, CEO of Synergy Resources (NYSE MKT: SYRG); Bart Brookman, CEO of PDC Energy (Nasdaq: PDCE); and Tracee Bentley, executive director of the Colorado Petroleum Council.
“If Hillary [Clinton] gets in, she’ll put you out of business,” Trump told the executives, Rittiman tweeted from the scene.
Trump asked the participants at the meeting, held at the offices of oil and gas firm K.P. Kauffman Co. Inc. in downtown Denver, if government regulations are holding them back, and many said yes.
Rittiman said that reporters were ushered out of the meeting a few minutes after it started.
He said the topic of hydraulic fracturing came up early in the gathering, perhaps prompted by Trump’s comments in a July interview with Rittiman that seemed to signal support for more local regulation of fracking — something that Colorado’s oil and gas executives strongly oppose. (Trump’s campaign later backed away from those comments.)
Democrat Clinton also has said she supports local regulation of fracking. (Click here for the Clinton campaign’s positions on energy and climate.)
Trump impressed at least one of the oil and gas executives who attended the meeting.
The executive, who to the Denver Business Journal on condition of anonymity, said Trump seemed to understand how regulatory issues can hamper industry operations and that some of the rules and regulations “are unnecessary.”
The executive also said he believes Trump understands the international implications of the boom in U.S. oil and natural gas production in the last few years.
Overall, the group thought the meeting “went very well,” according to another person who spoke to those who attended, and who also spoke to the DBJ on background.
The issues discussed included export of oil and natural gas produced in the U.S. and the opportunity the export channel holds for the domestic industry, the second person said.
John Harpole, the CEO of Mercator Energy, talked about the boom in natural gas production known as the “shale revolution,” according to a story from Denver Post reporter John Frank, who attended the first few minutes of the meeting as a pool reporter.
“I just feel like this administration and potentially Secretary Clinton has completely fumbled the ball on the advantage we have,” Harpole said, according to the Post.
“How many years of energy do we have under our feet” Trump asked him.
“At the current price point, we probably have 120 years of natural gas,” Harpole replied. He added: “This argument about sustainability in my mind doesn’t apply to the shale revolution. … It’s no longer a resource that is scarce.”
A leader of Colorado’s environmental community was quick to comment on Tuesday’s meeting, calling it an example of “how wrong Trump is for Colorado.”
“This is just another example on the never-ending list of how wrong Trump is for Colorado and our values,” said Pete Maysmith, the executive director of Conservation Colorado, in an emailed statement.
“From not being able to articulate a plan for protecting our public lands to saying he would appoint an oil executive to the Interior Department and now this, Trump couldn’t be positioning himself further away from being a leader who will champion and support our Colorado way of life. It’s clear that oil companies and special interests will benefit the most from a Donald Trump presidency, not everyday Coloradans,” Maysmith said.
Click here for Rittiman’s report on the meeting at 9News.com.
The meeting came a day after the Republican presidential candidate campaigned in Pueblo and Loveland.
A poll of Colorado voters, released Monday by Monmouth University, showed Trump trailing Democrat Clinton by 11 percentage points in the state — a contrast from several other previous polls that showed a tight contest here.
