“You know, slavery had a lot of economic benefits, but it had an ethical problem.” That was anti-fracking activist Weston Wilson on Monday pushing a ban on hydraulic fracturing in Colorado by asserting that oil and gas development is equivalent to slavery.

Such vitriolic ideology is intensifying as politics in swing-state Colorado ramps up to this year’s midterm elections. Politico Magazine headlined a report, “How Fracking Could Break Colorado Democrats.”