A news report regarding Colstrip started us thinking last week about the parallels to Boulder’s situation. The report from the University of Montana Community News Service by a graduate student at the School of Journalism is included in this week’s Monitor. It focuses on efforts by Colstrip legislator Duane Ankney to get economic relief for the community in anticipation of changes at the power plant there.
Ankney, a Republican, is a very experienced lawmaker, having been in the legislature since 2007, serving four terms in the House and two in the Senate. He is known for working hard on behalf of constituents. When the 2017 legislative session opened, he came with a very comprehensive package of bills. As explained in the news report, those proposals addressed tax funds for coal impacted communities, loans for maintaining infrastructure, retraining for workers, retirement and benefits for coal workers, payment to offset real estate value losses, school funding to offset losses there, and clean up efforts. Some passed, some did not.
Even with his experience, and the R designation in a GOP controlled legislature, Ankney left the session with far less than he hoped. Reading the article made us think about Boulder’s economic development efforts in the just-finished session. Boulder’s job losses and economic impacts are no less real than what is projected to happen at Colstrip. In fact, as the report says, remediation efforts and continued operations at two of the four Colstrip units may employ as many people as now on the job there.
