Sanders Fracking Ban Doesn’t Scare Democrats in Colorado’s Oil Field

(Bloomberg) -- Bernie Sanders’s vow to ban fracking if he’s elected president isn’t scaring off Democrats living atop Colorado’s biggest oil field.

The Vermont senator took 38% of the vote in Weld County, the epicenter of Colorado’s booming oil production, racking up almost twice as many votes as rival Joe Biden, who has taken a more moderate position on oil development. The outcome comes amid aggressive industry warnings that a fracking ban would cut jobs and hurt families in oil-rich areas, including Colorado.

Even in Midland, Texas -- the heart of the Permian basin -- Sanders won a solid 25% of voters to Biden’s 38%. Texas voters offered up another surprise for oil drillers, too -- effectively ousting a member of the state’s energy regulator who had defended excessive gas flaring in the Permian.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Traywick in Denver at ctraywick@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Marino at dmarino4@bloomberg.net, Jessica Summers, Pratish Narayanan

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