Well, once again, one of my very favorite sections of Colorado Politics served up some fascinating information. The Out West Roundup filled us in on several interesting and important stories in our region.

I was quite pleased to read the story that former sheriff and overall terrible person Joe Arpaio again was defeated in an election. This time it was in a mayoral bid in the small town of Fountain Hills, Arizona, where he was rejected by voters for a third time since he once claimed to be “America’s toughest sheriff.” That was back when his department racked up $147 million in legal bills as a result of his oft racist and poorly considered policies, costs that were dumped on the taxpayers of Maricopa County. At 90, you’d think he might have mellowed, but not so much. And in true Trumper style, he is claiming that in that heavily GOP town, there might have been election shenanigans, and that he is exploring how to challenge his loss, sigh.

We also learned in the Round Up of the loss of an American hero from World War II. Samuel Sandoval, one of four remaining Navajo Code Talkers, died at the remarkable age of 98. If you don’t know about the Code Talkers and their history, I recommend you spend some time learning about these heroic men who were vital to the war effort.

But the biggest story in this week’s Round Up had to do with coal. A federal judge in Billings, Montana reinstated a moratorium on issuing coal leases on federal lands that was created under former President Barack Obama, and then suspended by Trump. Nearly half of the coal used in the United States comes from federal lands — land we all own. Coal companies often get sweetheart deals that allow them to extract massive amounts of coal — 260 million tons last year — while paying the taxpayers relatively little.

Coal, as an energy source, is rapidly vanishing from the American energy picture. Other sources of energy are easier to produce and generate significantly less pollution and other complications. Republicans will often yelp about the many jobs the coal sector creates, and those jobs are a legitimate concern. But as we march toward the future, the energy production required to power our nation will continue to shift away from coal. And politics aside, far fewer requests for leases on federal lands have come from coal companies in recent years, as the handwriting is on the wall regarding the future of coal.

Back in 2008 when I ran for Congress, I was approached by representatives of a group promoting the use of “clean coal.” You may have heard Trump yap on about clean coal, but the problem is, well, it doesn’t really exist. And the impacts of coal-fired power plants are widely known.

The GOP’s (and often Joe Manchin’s, but that’s another story) position has been that coal is good and that coal is vital to our nation’s current and future energy production. That is partly true — we cannot simply throw a switch and shut down every coal-fired plant in the nation overnight. But we are certainly heading toward a coal-free future. Natural gas has become cheaper and more efficient, and generates significantly less pollution than does coal. Though there are important concerns about natural gas pollution, the concerns are generally much less than for coal.

So, what happens to the coal miners? The GOP would have you believe that the Dems would just toss them to the wind, but that is not so. There are a number of federal and state programs that help coal workers retrain into other industries, and these programs are a good and just idea, as the decline in coal mining is certainly not the fault of the miners.

But our nation has grown and evolved in the past, and we continue to do so. We no longer employ large numbers of blacksmiths — once a vital service. We don’t have huge numbers of horses for Army cavalry anymore, and we don’t have tens of thousands of workers employed in pumping gas at filling stations or in setting lead type at printing plants for newspapers. Our nation evolves, and so does the need for various types of workers. Basic human decency requires that we help those displaced, but we cannot deny nor prevent the evolution of our society.

It is a good thing that the moratorium on coal leases was reinstated. Such actions push our industrial sector to modernize and evolve. My home state of Michigan has far too many old and abandoned auto-manufacturing plants that are monuments to companies that did not embrace the future. And the calling card of western coal production is the surface mine, which provides 91% of coal production in our region. Those scars upon the land will long outlast the rotting buildings of Detroit.

We are moving forward toward a cleaner future and coal will inevitably become a smaller and smaller part of our energy portfolio. The only issue now is to decide if we are going to ween ourselves from coal with wisdom or with yelling and screaming.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.