Rural Colorado towns are really, REALLY hurting. In fact many are dying. Closing down high schools, laying off municipal staff, closing city parks, etc. Last Thursday night I ventured down to Canon City Colorado & attended the Royal Gorge Tea Party meeting. Many of those people are just barely hanging on. House Bill 1365 combined with myriad new EPA regulations is basically making it impossible for smaller, coal-fired power plants to stay in business. The W.N Clark powerplant in Canon City is now closed. Gone. History. Residents of that small, rural town have seen & are continuing to see their power bills climb by 30 to 50%. Businesses as well. Small business owners are calling it quits in droves. Drive down Main Street (main drag down town there literally is Main Street) and every 3rd store front is vacant). This is really a shame. I spoke with beautiful lady who is 81 years old, on a very meager fixed income; the spike in heating & electricity prices is more than she can absorb. So shes going to have to move in with her 50 year-old son, daughter-in-law & their family. This is happening all around town. I suspect in Penrose & other surrounding small towns as well. Not to mention the 100 or so people/families who were directly employed at Clark + probably double that indirectly. These are peoples lives, folks. While the ideal of cleaning up the environment by shutting down power plants may sound noble to you on its face, all actions create reactions. This green over people path were currently on is choking the life out of our in small towns. Theyre being forgotten, trampled, chewed up & spit out. And no one seems to care. Least of all the EPA and legislators who represent our urban areas. denverpost/opinion/ci_14795527 power-eng/articles/2012/08/black-hills-units-to-retire-coal-and-natural-gas-fired-power-plants.html
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 14:02:59 +0000