WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! GRAND JUNCTION RALLY DRAWS OVER 300; NEXT STOP DENVER, SEPTEMBER 23 AT 2 P.M. (WEST STEPS – STATE CAPITOL)!

On Monday, August 30, in Grand Junction, more than 300 people, including coal miners, state and local officials, citizens and businesses that rely on mining, showed up to urge the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to reject plans to replace coal in the electric generating mix. At issue is Xcel’s proposal, adopted pursuant to House Bill 1365, to retire 900 megawatts of coal generation in favor of high cost natural gas. The legislation, and Xcel’s plan, were the product of closed door negotiations to which the industry, consumers and the public were excluded.

According to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the commission heard dozens of speakers in an impromptu outdoor hearing set up on the east side of the old Mesa County Courthouse after audience members in an overflow room couldn’t hear proceedings in the main public hearing room.

The Sentinel further reported that more than 300 miners, fearful that their jobs are on the line (and they have reason to be), showed up to protest the impact that this plan would have on businesses and small communities throughout northwest Colorado

Routt County would see 16.4 percent of its tax base imperiled, former Colorado State Sen. Jack Taylor, R-Steamboat Springs, told the commission. And that is only the beginning. Other counties could suffer similar losses, Taylor said, while consumers now are looking at the prospect of higher rates as a result of the changes. State Senator Al White also sent a letter outlining his concerns and Rep. Randy Baumgardner also spoke at the rally.

As many as 200 direct jobs and 1,600 indirect jobs are at stake, Gene DiClaudio, president of Arch Western Bituminous Group, told the commission, stressing that those jobs are not hypothetical ones.

“These are real people who are standing before you tonight,” DeClaudio said.

One of them, 26-year-old Jeremy Guarasci, showed the commission the pick and shovel he tattooed on his neck to display how much he loves his job mining at Twenty Mile Mine near Craig.

“I’m certainly not too hopeful” that he’ll be able to keep his job and care for his family, including 5-month-old daughter, Guarasci said.

Yet the effort by the gas industry, working in concert with Xcel and the anti-coal community, to seek government action to take over markets served by reliable and affordable coal, continues. So does the misinformation campaign.

Stuart Sanderson, CMA President, took issue with two of the major arguments underpinning 1365. First is the completely false assumption that this bill would promote jobs in the gas industry on Colorado’s western slope. “In fact,” he pointed out, “Xcel’s plan itself projects the addition of only 16 jobs in the gas industry in the entire state.” Second, no legislation is needed to avoid a federal takeover of air quality regulations. No such action is threatened or even contemplated, he added. More than 36 other states are in the same boat and none have proposed to end coal use. “And don’t think for a minute that the EPA will ignore mobile sources of pollution,” he said.

If the prospects of EPA regulation were so great, then why didn’t the state begin this process and inform stakeholders a full year in advance, when they first became aware of the problem? Why did they push this deal through the legislature in a mere 17 days without further study of the impact this bill would have on jobs and Colorado’s economy?

More than 300 miners are waiting for an answer.

In the meantime, we need your support in Denver at the next rally for affordable energy. Show up at the West Steps of the Capitol at 2 p.m. September 23 to show your support for coal!

(Excerpts of this blog are based on news reports in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)