By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice
In May 2023, Gov. Jared Polis signed HB 23‑1247, directing the Colorado Energy Office to study advanced energy solutions — from nuclear and geothermal to long-duration storage — in regions facing coal-plant closures like Craig Station. The law included $50,000 from the Just Transition Fund and federal support to study firm energy options in northwest Colorado.
Within months, coal facilities began closing across the state—including Craig Station, now set to shutter by 2028. While studies are underway, comprehensive transition plans are still being reviewed. Facing job losses and shrinking tax bases, rural communities are taking charge.
“There’s a closing schedule—but no roadmap,” said Matt Solomon, project manager for the Northwest Colorado Energy Initiative (NCEI). “Colorado has a date and not a plan… What does that do? It erodes our trust in each other and our communities.”
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, who keynoted this year’s JOLT Summit, offered a stark contrast. “We’re learning from your mistakes,” he said. “We have a plan—and then we’ll set a date.”
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon addresses attendees at the 2025 JOLT Energy Summit in Rifle.
Who’s leading when the state won’t
When lawmakers passed HB23‑1247, they set a firm decarbonization deadline but offered few answers about what would happen to the towns most affected. That vacuum—economic, political and emotional—hit places like Craig and Nucla hardest. Coal plants were given closure dates, leaving families in uncertainty.
Ray Beck, a former Moffat County commissioner, said the impacts weren’t just economic—they were personal. After retiring, he helped launch JOLT to bring community voices back into the energy conversation.
“We shouldn’t be picking winners and losers,” Beck said. “It’s going to take all those energy sources to meet our demands going forward.”
“I understand capacity,” he added. “Right now, renewables alone won’t carry the load.”
JOLT’s first conversations began in 2022, when Beck reconnected with Rose Pugliese, a former Mesa County commissioner—and now Colorado House minority leader. “We started talking weekly,” Beck said. “We realized it couldn’t just be Rose and me.”
They acted. JOLT’s founding members included local officials, educators, energy workers and development leaders—united not by politics, but by the belief that rural Colorado deserves a voice.
The group started with calls and weekly sessions. “We didn’t have a plan laid out,” Beck said. “We just knew it had to be something—and we started bringing in people who were on board with the idea to educate, communicate and advocate.”
By the following summer, JOLT had evolved from a loose group of phone calls and Zoom sessions into a coordinated regional initiative. The team partnered with AGNC and NCEI, brought in university researchers and national labs, and launched a public survey effort across the Western Slope.
Their goal wasn’t to fight the state—it was to build what the state hadn’t.
JOLT Committee members with Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon. From left: Matt Shuler, Chair Ray Beck, Gov. Gordon, Co-Chair Rose Pugliese, Sue Hansen, Bobbie Daniel and Dr. Lisa Jones. Unable to attend: Mandy Miller, Head of Business Development with Shactee Engineering and Delta Commissioner Wendall Koontz.
Local leaders build their own blueprint
While lawmakers in Denver drafted timelines and targets, rural communities began filling in the blanks. Through partnerships with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Idaho National Lab and Los Alamos, the JOLT network launched a regional modeling effort—measuring workforce needs, siting potential and long-term economic risks.
Led by the Northwest Colorado Energy Initiative (NCEI), it remains one of the only locally driven transition plans of its kind in the state.
Jamie Cutlip-Gorman of NREL said the goal was to find what works.
“This isn’t about picking the best technology—it’s about economic development, workforce and energy affordability,” she said.
Two regional surveys showed residents prioritized job protection, reliability and affordability.
“Our workforce and our energy security—that’s what matters to Northwest Colorado,” Solomon said.
Matt Solomon, project manager for the Northwest Colorado Energy Initiative, delivers his presentation at the 2025 JOLT Energy Summit.
Now supported by the federal Communities LEAP program, the modeling informs the state’s own feasibility study. “We want to engage with the state,” said Solomon. “But we didn’t wait.”
JOLT’s scope includes advanced nuclear, geothermal, wind, carbon capture and long-duration battery storage. The team is analyzing each option based on labor requirements, tax impact and siting feasibility—working to identify which, if any, can replace the economic weight of legacy industries.
Without a state roadmap, JOLT’s modeling is becoming rural Colorado’s blueprint.
Best of the above: beyond politics
One phrase quietly reframed the JOLT Summit this year: best of the above.
“We’re not going to have energy transition,” Gordon told the crowd. “It’s energy addition. Every form of energy has its benefits and its consequences.”
He warned against political purity tests and urged states to be strategic. “This shouldn’t be about ‘or.’ It should be about ‘and.’”
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon
“He’s trying to find the best of all the above and what works,” Beck said. “And that’s what we’re about too.”
“Let’s erase this either/or conversation… Let’s have an AND conversation,” Solomon said.
For rural counties already reeling from coal job losses, the political debate in Denver feels disconnected from what’s actually needed. That’s why conversations at JOLT kept returning to one idea: integration. Not just of energy sources, but of policies, partnerships and rural economies that have too often been treated as expendable.
“We can do it better than anywhere else,” Gordon said. “We’ve led before—and we can lead again.”
What rural Colorado stands to lose
Despite talk of portfolios and targets, the sharpest edge of the transition is economic—and rural counties are feeling it first.
Dr. Nathan Perry, an economist at Colorado Mesa University, presented a sobering analysis at the summit. Energy jobs make up 5 percent of statewide employment—but 10 percent of wages, and even more in northwest Colorado.
Dr. Nathan Perry, economist at Colorado Mesa University, presents his energy impact analysis at the 2025 JOLT Energy Summit.
“It’s not just about the number of jobs—it’s about the kind of jobs,” Perry said. “When you lose a $200,000 rig job, your spending goes down. Period.”
Perry’s modeling showed that in Craig, coal still supports hundreds of jobs, plus schools, hospitals and basic infrastructure. Yet severance and ad valorem tax revenues—the lifeblood of those systems—are declining as production falls.
He pointed to signs of resilience, with new jobs in construction, healthcare and tourism—though wages and stability don’t yet compare.
“We’re seeing momentum, and that gives me hope,” he said. “But it’s going to take coordination—and a long runway—to land this plane.”
Solomon said that’s exactly what the modeling is designed to support—offering side-by-side comparisons of energy technologies based on labor needs, tax impact and feasibility.
The point wasn’t to cling to coal, but to be honest about what it provided—and what it will take to replace it.
“Energy is economic development,” Beck said. “We’ve said that from the beginning. And that’s why we’re doing this work.”
A working model for rural transition
What began as a grassroots response to policy silence has grown into one of the most coordinated rural transition efforts in the state. From its roots in Craig to recent gatherings in Montrose and Rifle, JOLT has steadily gained momentum.
Next year’s summit is scheduled for June 18–19 at Colorado Mesa University.
“We’re not just filling seats—we’re looking for people who can take what they learn and apply it,” Beck said.
Beck said one sponsor told him, “I’ve seen real growth since your first summit,” and added, “This could be the model for the nation.”
“Between New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, we have an enormous amount of energy we can provide,” Gordon said. “If we work together, we all benefit.”
JOLT proves local leaders can lead it themselves. What sets it apart isn’t partisanship or bureaucracy. It works—bringing leaders into the same room, starting at neutral and building from there.
This isn’t retirement—it’s responsibility
When Beck retired from public office in 2021, after years of serving Craig, Moffat County and the state, it looked like a chapter was closing. Instead, it opened a new one.
“It was an opportunity to take what I’ve learned over the years and apply it in a way that would benefit the region and our communities,” Beck said.
He hasn’t done it alone. “Ray believes in this with his whole heart,” said Dixie Beck, who’s been by his side throughout. “And I believe in it too.”
The Becks’ presence reflects what the summit is about: protecting what matters without bitterness or blame.
“He was just really complimentary—saying how much growth he’d seen from our first summit to this one,” Beck said of one sponsor.
Beck is quick to redirect the praise. “None of this would happen without our committee, our sponsors and the folks who show up,” Beck said. “They’re the reason it works.”
Attendees listen to a session at the 2025 JOLT Energy Summit.
His message to the next generation is simple: “Get involved.” Beck added, “Too many people sit on the sidelines and criticize. But when you’re around positive people, that can spill over.”
Gordon said: “People in this room… know and care and can solve this. We are at an incredible inflection point for America.”
Presentations from this year’s speakers will be posted soon at www.joltenergysummit.com.