Forty-Five Years Ago This Week: “Contrary to popular belief, it appears that growth in Colorado’s coal industry during the 1980s will be surprisingly sluggish,” said the findings in the Colorado Energy Research Institute’s “Focus Series.”

The institute’s conclusions on the state of energy in Colorado were not surprising to many. In 1979, Colorado had an estimated production capacity of 37 million tons per year, but 1.2 million tons were stockpiled for lack of market. Colorado Energy reported that 38 of Colorado’s 83 coal mines were either failed, idle or closed.

“The industry is not booming,” said Joan Martin, author of the Focus Report. “There are several causes for the problems in Colorado’s coal industry and no easy solutions. But central to an understanding of coal in Colorado is that omnipresent regulator, the federal government.”

For example, the Clean Air Act of 1970 required eastern and midwestern coal users to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions either by installing scrubbers, which were not always reliable, or by importing western coal. Many chose to import Colorado coal.

But in 1979, new source performance standards required the use of the best available emission control technology and the west’s coal advantages were no more. Then the federal government rolled out guidelines to prevent significant deterioration of visibility, like that of Rocky Mountain National Park, Sand Dunes National Monument and other wilderness areas.

“Growth in Colorado’s coal industry is partially tied to nuclear power because the Midwest is a potential market for both power reactors and Colorado coal,” Martin said. “We’ve seen fairly slow electrical generation growth everywhere, but when Midwest utilities do build new plants, they’ll either be nuclear or coal. What’s bad for nuclear is good news for Colorado coal.”

Twenty-Five Years Ago: Colorado’s Fair Share Health Care bill, “the Wal-Mart Bill”, was killed in committee at the request of its House sponsor, state Rep. Judy Solano, D-Brighton. 

The so-called “Wal-Mart Bill” was a part of a multiple state-level initiatives after the passage of Maryland Senate Bill 06-790, which required large employers to spend a minimum percentage of payroll, 8%, on health benefits. The response from multiple states was so strong that the New York Times reported in February 2006 that Wal-Mart had announced plans to expand healthcare coverage to more employees.

But in Colorado, the Fair Share Health Care Bill was extremely controversial.

“The Business Affairs Committee members had legitimate questions,” Solano said. “After a seven-minute statement reemphasizing the need for this measure, I asked the committee to kill the Fair Share Health Care Bill so that further study and work could be done to improve the bill.”

Solano said that there wasn’t enough information to move forward and that her team needed the disclosure to do a good job and to see how cost shifting would affect Colorado companies. Solano did not know the number of working employees currently on public health programs and said the absence of this critical information was evident, with many committee-members dissatisfied.

“The absence of information is unacceptable,” said Colorado AFL-CIO political director Carolyn Siegel. “The efforts to pass Fair Share legislation this year demonstrated that the state needs to release information on how many working employees use public health programs, where they work and what their health care costs taxpayers.”

But Republican Gov. Bill Owens had vetoed a bill Solano sponsored in 2005 that would have done just that, revealing the information. The executive branch also denied an open records request from the Front Range Economic Strategy Center.

“I guess some people are afraid to look at the truth,” Solano said.

House Minority Leader Rep. Mike May, R-Parker, said the result was a victory for Republicans and saw the bill as a political move by Democrats to please the unions rather than as a legitimate attempt to pass “anti-business” legislation.

Rachael Wright is the author of several novels, including The Twins of Strathnaver, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing columnist to Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette, and the Denver Gazette.