October 20, 2008 12:20 AM UTC

Colorado Energy Tour: The Campaign for Change visits New Belgium

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• by: Jenn at Obama for America in Colorado

From the Colorado for Obama blog:

On Monday, the Colorado Campaign for Change RV, equipped with solar panels, again took the road — this time on a statewide energy tour. On the RV were Governor Bill Ritter and former Secretary of Transportation and Energy, Frederico Pena.

The morning started off in Fort Collins where they were joined by Denver Mayor and former brewery owner John Hickenlooper for a tour of the New Belgium brewery. New Belgium is the third largest mid-sized brewery in the United States and is known as a model of sustainability and eco-friendly practices. In 1999, New Belgium became the largest private consumer of wind-power electricity at that time and the first wind-powered brewery in the country.

At the end of the tour, Mayor Hickenlooper praised the brewery and explained why how New Belgium is an example of the kind of companies that Barack supports and will continue to support when he is president.

He said:

Imagine a country where you have a leader in place who has that same sort of sense about the need to transform our country, the need to do it with respect to both how we consume and how we produce and understands the opportunities that are a part of that. It’s not built of desperation or a lack of hope, it’s built out of a sense of an ability to create jobs and create a different energy future, to create a different economy and at the same time be responsible stewards of the environment.

You guys have definitely done it here at the New Belgium brewery, there are companies doing it around America and what we badly need is a leader in Washington D. C. who will partner with the states and develop a new energy economy in this country. So that’s one of the reasons why I so heartily embrace Barack Obama’s campaign for presidency because I believe he has the vision for that new energy economy.

Here are some more photos from the first stop of the energy tour: