Koontz: Hurd delivers on water, agriculture and energy

By Wendell A. Koontz | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

Western Colorado problems don’t care about political parties. Our issues and concerns demand practical, effective, common-sense leadership. That’s what we have in Congressman Jeff Hurd.

Water, Agriculture, and Energy form the economic backbone of West Slope communities, and they face unprecedented challenges today. Jeff Hurd has been a strong, pragmatic leader on those issues, advocating for Western Colorado and forging real solutions to protect our water, preserve our agricultural businesses, and expand our energy sector to meet 21st-century demands. He listens to us, fights for us, and delivers real results for Western Colorado.

Representative Hurd can take huge credit for getting the $40 million for Shoshone Water Rights funding to keep Colorado River water on the Western Slope. Senator Michael Bennet gave him full credit for that, according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “[Jeff] landed this plane because I wasn’t getting my calls returned from the Trump administration and he was. He told them it was his number one priority,” Bennet said.

Jeff’s support for agriculture stands in stark contrast to his opponent’s. At the 2026 Club 20 debate, candidate Dwayne Romero firmly and without hesitation let us know that he opposes any and all new leases on public lands. No grazing and no energy. Lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management generated $7.9 billion in Colorado in 2024 and supported more than 33,000 jobs. Romero’s pledge offers a stark reminder that rural Western Colorado communities, home to most of those public lands, will lose their agricultural and energy economies without the support of Jeff Hurd.

Equally important is Jeff’s defense against a public lands sell-off proposed by Senator Mike Lee of Utah. “I was the one Republican vote in the House of Representatives to not go forward with a massive public land sale, and then we worked behind the scenes to strip that out of the final legislation. It wasn’t even passed out of the House of Representatives. Another example of me standing up for my district and for what’s right in making sure that that provision was not included in the legislation,” Hurd said at the Club 20 debate on Sept. 19, 2026.

Representative Hurd is supporting the SPEED Act to modernize our federal permitting system, support all-of-the-above energy production, and let America build the critical infrastructure we need to run our lives. His leadership helped get this bill passed through the House of Representatives. Energy projects, whether traditional or renewable, should not take decades to engineer, permit, and build. Those foundational reforms were included in a comprehensive bipartisan permitting reform bill being considered right now in the Senate.

Additionally, Jeff is leading the way on innovative energy resources. Jeff and Representative Susie Lee of Nevada co-led passage of the Geothermal Energy Advancement Act through the House with broad support from Republican and Democrat representatives, Canary Media reported. Geothermal energy is a zero-carbon, always-on, renewable resource. Western Colorado has some of the best geology in the nation for this new technology, as well as a skilled workforce from our oil and gas sector to conduct exploration and develop production wells.

In less than two years Jeff has become one of the most effective representatives the Western Slope has had. Jeff has delivered huge wins for us, promoting all-of-the-above energy abundance, bringing federal support for our drought-stressed rivers and watersheds, and ensuring that Western Slope agriculture continues to produce our food and fiber. His commitment to humble servant-leadership is genuine and is giving us a new trust in American politics. He is principled, fiscally conservative, and thoughtful.

Please join me in supporting Representative Jeff Hurd for a second congressional term.

Wendell A. Koontz is a Delta County Commissioner representing District 3, now in his second term. He previously served as a Hotchkiss town trustee and two terms as the town’s mayor. He chairs the Gunnison Basin Roundtable and serves on the Club 20 Executive Team and the board of Colorado Counties, Inc. A registered professional geologist with more than 25 years in mining, he lives in the North Fork Valley with his wife, Esther.

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.