Government and community leaders from the rural northwestern Colorado county will attend a three-day workshop in April that aims to help coal-dependent counties that have fallen on hard times, the Grand Junction Sentinel reports.
Moffat commissioners blame a war on coal in Colorado and nationally for contributing to the industry’s slowdown and the county’s current economic problems. These include state legislation in 2010 aimed at converting some Xcel Energy power plant generation from coal to cleaner-burning fuels such as natural gas, and a 2013 measure requiring rural energy cooperatives to obtain 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.
