The following is a joint submission from the Routt County Board of Commissioners and the town of Hayden.

As Routt County and the town of Hayden intervene in Xcel’s Just Transition Solicitation process at the PUC, we wanted to write this op-ed to convey some basic facts and speak to our main focus: jobs for our people and property taxes for our school districts and special districts.

Everyone that we have listened to in the community, especially those in West Routt and South Routt, have said keeping their jobs and backfilling the property-tax losses should be our top priority.

We also understand many Routt County residents care deeply about environmental sustainability. We remain laser-focused on securing the best possible outcome for our community while balancing the complex issues stated above.

“Local Coal Energy” assessed value represents roughly 15% of the Routt County assessed value. This number is used by many around the state and in some media channels. This number is very deceiving, because it is not representative of the true impacts that lay ahead for our communities.

Local coal energy represents 45.71% of the Hayden School District’s total assessed value; 51.8% of West Routt Fire Protection District’s total assessed value; 7.8% for South Routt School District and South Routt Medical Center assessed value; and 37% of the West Routt Library District total assessed value. In total, that is $4,745,360 per year lost in essential services if Xcel simply went away.

Xcel employs around 68 full-time employees and Twentymile Mine employs around 100 FTEs. We are still researching, but we estimate that there are roughly 30-50 indirect jobs (through contractors) that service those companies. That is roughly 200 jobs within our community with an average starting salary around $75,000–95,000 per year plus benefits. In dollars using the starting wage as a base, that is $174,250,000 in gross wages per year.

In Xcel’s Just Transition Filing it has proposed to pay the community $2,721,166 for six years following the Station’s closure. However, that represents just a fraction of the economic impact to these critical community services across Routt County. There is clearly more to discuss than what Xcel has proposed. We recently saw the settlement agreement Moffat County reached with Tri-State Generation and we deserve a settlement at least on par with what was established in Moffat County.

Based on an analysis of the numbers, the best outcome for Xcel Station would be a redevelopment of the asset to continue energy generation. Xcel has expressed a desire to maintain Hayden Station as an asset. In Xcel’s press release announcing the JST, it noted, “We’ve closed 23 coal units — the most recent at the end of 2023 — without forced workforce reductions.” We’d like to hold them to that here in Routt County.

What is certain is that redevelopment will not be a coal-generated resource. We must advocate now for a more sustainable proposition that aligns with our shared community values, protecting our people and communities.

Routt County’s energy future lies in the hands of a state regulatory process that will determine what role Xcel will have in the region’s energy economy. Now is the time for our community to weigh in about what we want that energy future to look like. The PUC is accepting public comments via email at dora_puc_website@state.co.us with the subject line: “Docket Number 24A-0442E.”

With the accelerated closure of the Hayden Station just around the corner, this Just Transition Solicitation plan is our chance to make sure Xcel does its part to support our community, hopefully continue to be a part of it, save our jobs, preserve our communities, and meet our shared goals regarding 21st-century energy technology.