Mesa County commissioners have made an excellent case for bringing a natural gas-fired generating station to the Western Slope. It’s time for other area officials to join them.

A letter from commissioners to Gov. John Hickenlooper outlines how a new Xcel Energy plant capable of generating 700 megawatts of electricity would meet several policy goals and shift opportunity away from the booming Front Range to an economically challenged rural part of the state.

More specifically, a generation plant built in the Piceance Basin would have an abundant supply of dry natural gas at its disposal. Some 200 trillion cubic feet are locked in formations in the Piceance and Sandwash basins. It’s the drilling and production jobs to supply gas to the plant, not the relatively few maintenance jobs inside, that would be a game-changer for Western Slope producers and the local economy.

Read more at gjsentinel.com.