Colorado’s Moffat and Routt Counties have been hit very hard by the closures of coal mines and coal power plants. U.S. Senator from Colorado, Michael Bennet has heard over and over how these closures have affected these rural communities and went about trying to discover possible strategies to help. In fact, the gap created by the loss of an important local tax base has amounted to as much as 60 percent of local revenue in some places. Senator Bennet introduced the National Energy Community Transition Act. The bill will establish an endowment fund and federally-chartered corporation to invest in communities facing economic struggles from declining fossil fuel extraction and production. This similar approach of supporting local government funding for services has been quite successful throughout the West. The proposal has been referred to the Judiciary Committee for consideration.
