Colorado Coal Country Turns to Solar Energy, Organic Farming (from ludlow to solar, organic)
(last week was the anniversary of the ludlow massacre, and prior was the story of the KY coal museum going solar--all related, all interesting)
Colorado Coal Country Turns to Solar Energy, Organic Farming
To see the worst of the coal slump in Colorado, look no further than the state's North Fork Valley.
PAONIA, Colo. (AP) — To see the worst of the coal slump in Colorado, look no further than the state's North Fork Valley. Since 2013, two out of three mines have closed around Paonia. The region has seen a large exodus of miners and their families as the number of mine-related jobs dropped from 950 in January 2010 to just 220 in January 2017. Workers at the last mine standing in the region, West Elk, met President Donald Trump's executive order with cautious optimism. But travel to the west central Colorado region, and it's clear that the area isn't banking on coal coming back to what it used to be. And the decline is clear. It's meant a few empty storefronts in Paonia, a drop in Delta County School District students, and fewer fully ensured health care patients in the region.
And there's another challenge: In contrast to big coal producers such as Wyoming and the Appalachia region back East, federal grant dollars to ease the transition away from coal aren't flowing as freely into Colorado. That's according to Democratic state Sen. Kerry Donovan, who represents Delta County. "I think what's unique about Colorado is it's not thought of as coal country," Donovan said. "Those federal programs have focused on the more traditional West Virginia, Appalachia communities that we think of as coal country. So I think in Colorado it's going to fall more on the shoulders of the state."
On the bright side, this means there's new opportunities for economic planning and development. Up around Paonia and Hotchkiss, that's meant a focus on existing industries like solar energy and organic farming. Jim Ventrello, the Delta County School District's financial officer, said there's a fundamental belief that a coal industry revival isn't going to save the region. And efforts to transplant a new industry to the region won't work, either."Goodyear isn't going to walk in here and build a plant," said Ventrello. "If we're going to continue here and we're going to develop, we're going to have to do it ourselves."
The Barack Obama administration sent some dollars to Colorado for rebuilding coal communities, including nearly $650,000 to Gunnison County for job retraining. For her part, Donovan has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation to appropriate $500,000 for communities scrambling to plan forward from sudden mine and plant closures.With planning help from state economic developers, Delta County Economic Development Inc. drew up its future plans in 2016. Here's a look at the key items. (very interesting indeed):
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https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/colorado/articles/2017-04-08/colorado-coal-country-turns-to-solar-energy-organic-farming
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