Greeley, Colorado Mayor Tom Norton, a Republican who thought lawmakers concerned about climate change in the early 1990s were “completely nuts,” has changed his tune. “We need to think as long term as we can imagine, and be very thoughtful about what we leave for our children,” he says. While he maintains concerns about big government crushing small business, he calls climate change “something we need to deal with” but “regulating people out of business is not the way to solve the problem.” Norton thinks in lieu of regulatory schemes, sustainability measures make sense.
Also of note, Colorado is currently embroiled in a fight over a series of ballot initiatives that would ban hydraulic fracturing, and Norton leads a coalition of opponents to these measures. He notes that climate change and the environment have to be taken into consideration “but we can’t stop using energy overnight.”