Zak Wood / Colorado Daily

Candidates for Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, Joan Fitz-Gerald, right, draws to see who will speak first at the candidate forum as Jared Polis, center, and Will Shafroth, left, watch on. The forum was held in the Municipal building Friday afternoon.

Three Democratic Party candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives spoke at a forum in Boulder Friday, and on a big-picture level, there were many similarities.

All of them want more renewable energy production and research. None of them want to “pave paradise” when it comes to Colorado’s open lands. All of them want U.S. troops out of Iraq. None of them believe warrantless wiretapping is a practice that the drafters of the Bill of Rights would have made an exception for.

But on a more detailed level, there were differences between what House candidates Jared Polis, Will Shafroth and Joan Fitz-Gerald had to say. The citizen group PLAN-Boulder County (PBC) hosted the forum, attendees packed Boulder’s City Council Chambers to learn more, and the candidates spent about 90 minutes speaking from the hot seats.

ENVIRONMENT / ENERGY

PBC asked several questions relating to the environment and energy. The following paragraphs are paraphrased excerpts from candidate responses.

Shafroth (www.shafrothforcongress.com) said climate change requires immediate U.S. action. He said increasing energy efficiency is a “low-hanging fruit” that can yield near-term energy savings, and said the U.S. needs an “aggressive” policy – including renewing tax credits for renewable installations – to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. He recently visited NREL, and said Friday that “we are on the cusp” of a breakthrough in cellulosic ethanol production.

Shafroth said Western roadless areas must be protected, especially since he said the Bush administration has been “in a rush” to approve land leases for energy exploration. He said he is not in favor of drilling on the Roan Plateau, and he believes his professional experience in Western land issues gives him a chance of landing on the House Natural Resources Committee if elected.

Fitz-Gerald (www.joanfitz-gerald.com) said many things need to be done on the national level, including boosting transit and energy efficiency. She said she and the state Legislature advanced a “compendium” of issues while she was a state Senator. They included establishing a Clean Energy Fund, mapping the state for renewable energy potential, passing a Demand Side Management bill and passing a net metering bill.

Fitz-Gerald said additional leasing of public land won’t reduce the price of gasoline, and said the nation is “subsidizing” the oil industries with its military budget. She said entities drilling on public land must manage air quality and other environmental concerns. She added a non-mineral public land concern – pine beetle forest devastation – and said the state needs FEMA money to manage forested urban interface areas.

Polis (www.polisforcongress.com) has a seven-point climate change plan. It includes a “feebate” plan, in which a fee would be added to purchases of energy-inefficient appliances to pay for rebates on efficient hardware. He said one of the reasons that there hasn’t been enough U.S. progress on climate change is that “an army” of oil and gas lobbyists have helped channel money to members of Congress, Rs and Ds alike.

Polis said opening new federal lands for drilling would have relatively little impact on oil supply, and it would take seven to 10 years to produce results. He said more drilling would be like “feeding an addict more drugs,” and could delay national action on weaning itself from fossil fuels. He said the U.S. should renew its renewable tax credits, and provide student-loan-like loans for renewable installations.

MILITARY / HOMELAND SECURITY

Candidates were asked about Iraq, a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) update that would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications firms for allowing warrantless wiretapping, and the USA PATRIOT Act, among other issues.

Fitz-Gerald said she would vote against further supplemental appropriations for Iraq if elected. She said she does not believe the U.S. is safer because its troops are in Iraq, and in her opinion it might be less safe. She said the Iraq Study Group produced quality recommendations, but said the report came out two years ago while in 2008, “the time for timelines (for withdrawal) is over.”

Fitz-Gerald, on FISA and the PATRIOT Act, said she has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution three times as a Senator. She said “that is not an oath you want to violate,” and said while she understands the threat of terrorism, she will always vote to protect the Constitution. She also said she fought Republicans over a 2003 state redistricting proposal that the state Supreme Court eventually found to be unconstitutional.

Polis said he and other Democrats running for Congress co-authored what they called a “Responsible Plan” for Iraq, which includes support for phased withdrawal of troops. He criticized Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats for not doing enough to end the war. He also said he has called for a 15-percent decrease in the U.S. military budget, which would still leave that budget larger than the rest of the world’s, combined.

Polis also said he was disappointed with congressional Democrats who voted for the FISA bill that would “let telecoms off the hook.” He said he has been a strong supporter of the ACLU for years and opposed the PATRIOT Act. He said he would be a “champion of civil liberties” in Congress, and said it will take effort from members of all parties to protect liberties.

Shafroth said he was opposed to the invasion of Iraq from the start, and remains critical of the pre-emptive strike. He said Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and no link to al-Qaeda at the time of invasion. He said he would not vote in favor of an Iraq funding bill without a timeline for withdrawal, and said it is important to make sure that U.S. troops are safe on the way out.

Shafroth said he would not have voted for the FISA bill, saying he disagrees with immunity for telecoms, and noting that thousands of warrants still get approved legally. He also lauded Qwest for standing up to the federal government and refusing to break the law. He said he is a strong advocate for the right to privacy, and said warrantless wiretapping calls into question whether the government is committed to the rule of law.

Contact Richard Valenty about this story at (303) 443-6272 ext. 126, or at valenty@coloradodaily.com.