by Jonathan Hiskes. Bicycling doesn’t get a lot of attention in election campaigns, but Colorado governor candidate Dan Maes (R) ensured a cycle-focused news cycle in early August when he suggested Denver’s new bike-sharing program was a step toward “converting Denver into a United Nations community.” “This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms,” Maes, a first-time political candidate and surprise winner of the Republican primary, said at a campaign rally. He was responding to his Democratic opponent, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper , who launched the nation’s largest bike-sharing program on Earth Day this year. Maes told The Denver Post that at first he thought transit and environmental initiatives were harmless. Then he realized “that’s exactly the attitude they want you to have.” The comment highlights the stark choice Colorado voters face in their gubernatorial election this fall. Hickenlooper is running on his record as mayor of Denver, where he has ma. Maes evinces a Tea Party suspicion of government action and a fealty to dirty-energy producers, warning on his website that oil and gas drilling and mining are under threat from “bureaucratic regulations” imposed “in the name of the politically correct new energy economy.” He defied an unusual push from the Republican Party to get him to drop out of the race and let a more “viable” candidate step in. A third-party candidate, Tom Tancredo, is creating still more headaches for Republicans by threatening to split conservative votes; he has spoken about little besides immigration since jumping into the race several weeks ago. There’s plenty at stake in shaping the state’s energy landscape. In 2004, Colorado became the first state to pass a voter-approved renewable-electricity standard, requiring that private utilities generate a 10th of their power from clean sources. This spring, the state bumped that standard up to 30 percent, the second-most-ambitious in the nation (behind California). The state has seen a surge of clean-energy investment in recent years, with Vestas, Siemens, AVA Solar, and dozens of other wind and solar manufacturing companies opening up shop under the encouragement of current Gov. Bill Ritter (D), who released a climate action plan in 2007. “Clean technology was like a safety net that kept us from falling into the abyss,” said the head of the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce. Yet oil and natural-gas drilling remain important industries on the state’s western slope, as made clear by a recent flareup over a review of drilling rules. Let’s take a look at where the candidates stand. John Hickenlooper Hickenlooper lists energy among the top three issues on his website , but calls himself ” agnostic ” when it comes to choosing particular sources.

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