Colorado governor John Hickenlooper is the kind of guy who will stand up in front of a room of outdoor industry professionals, realize he鈥檚 overdressed, pause to take off his tie, and then keep speaking as if nothing happened. Before he was governor, before he and three friends opened Denver鈥檚 first brewpub (Wynkoop Brewery, which is still going strong), he was a geologist spending summers in Yellowstone National Park. That early connection to the great outdoors informed his decisions as a politician, and has come full circle: he received Outdoor Industry Association鈥檚 鈥淔riend of the Industry Award鈥 this spring for investing in Colorado鈥檚 recreation economy and creating a state office for outdoor recreation and the nation鈥檚 first Public Lands Day.
How have you seen the industry evolve during your time as governor? How have you seen its influence change?聽
I still have the JanSport tent I bought in 1975. I鈥檝e still got my old Kelty pack, my The North Face parka, all the stuff I used in the 鈥70s doing geology. Back then鈥攁nd even today鈥 outdoor recreation prided itself on innovation and functionality. It never got very involved in anything outside of occasional letters of support for the wilderness. As the country has become more divided and there are some loud voices suggesting that we don鈥檛 need all the public land we have, I think the outdoor industry, in really the last six or eight years, has started to organize itself into a nonpartisan voice in support of public lands, and clean air and water.
As you鈥檝e worked closely with the outdoor industry, you鈥檝e also worked closely with oil and gas and openly defended fracking. How do you reconcile these two partnerships?
Natural gas has been, and will continue to be, an important transitional fuel. Even as we add dramatic amounts of wind and solar power, we鈥檙e probably going to need natural gas for a significant period of time. In most cases, the places where we get natural gas in Colorado鈥攁nd our team has really fought hard to try to make sure that this stays true鈥攁re places where they鈥檝e been drilling for many years, where the infrastructure is already in place. That鈥檚 where they鈥檙e getting their highest productivity. They鈥檙e using new techniques like horizontal drilling. Until we get to the point where we have fuel cells and we transition to a completely clean energy future, to be able to get more natural gas inexpensively and without polluting the air is a valuable portion of our energy solution.
Denver and Colorado have poured a lot of time and money into bringing Outdoor Retailer here. How is the state鈥檚 ROI looking so far?
I鈥檝e spent a big part of the last seven years trying to figure out how to get more jobs and more small businesses into the rural parts of the state. Well, if outdoor recreation isn鈥檛 a good prescription for getting jobs into rural communities, I don鈥檛 know what is. Many outdoor recreation companies are small manufacturers and craftspeople. They generally don鈥檛 want to be in big cities. If we can give them high-speed internet in communities maybe an hour or even two or three hours away from Denver, they鈥檙e happy. So, when [Outdoor Retailer] first announced they were going to leave Utah, I thought it was too good to be true for Colorado. Denver previously had other conventions lined up, with [groups that] spend much more money than outdoor recreation does at Outdoor Retailer, but they鈥檙e not as good for the long-term future of Colorado. I鈥檝e talked to a lot of community groups along the Front Range to make sure they understand the potential these conventions have to make Colorado better and more successful.
Do you have any plans for long-term involvement with the outdoor industry once your term as governor is up?
I think I鈥檒l always be involved with outdoor recreation. I鈥檓 a believer. I may be leaving in six months, but we鈥檙e laying out a ten-year plan. [We were asking,] how do we integrate all these trails on different types of lands鈥攑rivate property, state land, and federal land? There鈥檚 so much to do, and I think it鈥檚 a really exciting time to be engaged in outdoor recreation in any capacity. We haven鈥檛 quite figured out exactly what I鈥檓 going to be when I grow up, so we didn鈥檛 pencil my name in in a formal way anywhere. We have large, significant philanthropists in Colorado, and we want to get them involved in building these networks of trails while you can still get access to the land before certain key parcels are sold. I think I鈥檒l always be engaged in that kind of work.
There have been a lot of rumors: are you planning to run for president in 2020?
We鈥檙e looking at it. That鈥檚 as far as I鈥檒l go. I鈥檓 a small-business person and I鈥檓 a lifetime Democrat, but I also believe that we have to work with Republicans and independents and that that鈥檚 the way we鈥檙e really going to get things done: getting everybody seated at the same table, everybody working together. I don鈥檛 know if the country is quite ready for that level of collaborative intensity. My wife and I are going to go spend a week out of state sitting on a lake where nobody knows who we are. We鈥檙e going to try to really come up with the good parts and the bad parts. By then, we should have an idea of whether we鈥檙e going to begin to push this envelope.