Senator backs calls for Interior Department to move west

Sen. Michael Bennett is supporting a possible relocation of Department of Interior offices to Colorado.

“I’m all for it,” the Colorado Democrat told energy trade publication Western Wire during a Colorado Oil and Gas Association conference. “I think it would be great. I think anything we can get out of Washington, D.C. and into Colorado, I’m for.”

“The Democratic senator acknowledged three Interior agency departments, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, were candidates for a DOI shift west,” Western Wire said.

In May, Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, introduced a bill to relocate BLM offices to a Western state. Fellow Colorado Republican Rep. Scott Tipton then introduced the House version of the bill.

Bennett’s statement comes after reports of a July meeting, attended by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, that described a possible relocation of the three federal agencies to Denver. Not surprisingly, the move is supported by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.