COLORADO'S GREEN TRIANGLE

Coal Economy, Alternative Energy Mind-set Co-exist in Colorado Town

By Headwaters News, 9-05-06

Coal is big business in Paonia, where nearly half the 1,600 residents make their living from area coal mines or related industries. But the Delta County community in Colorado is also the site of the new Solar Energy International campus that teaches students how to install new solar-electric systems.

The Denver Post reports today that the environmentally minded residents of Paonia, along with their neighbors in Crawford and Hotchkiss, were spurred into action by an article in Forbes magazine that called the area around the three towns the “Golden Triangle” as yet undiscovered by the wealthy hordes that had driven property values sky-high in Aspen, Vail and Beaver Creek.

Local leaders, who swore they would not let Paonia become another Vail, took swift action. Two progressive groups, Citizens for Clean Energy and The Green Triangle were quickly formed to make their communities more green.

Soon there were two new subdivisions that are designed "green," where homes are south-facing with solar panels and energy-efficient appliances. But the "green" mind-set isn't all that new in Paonia. The local electricity cooperative has long been exploring ways to make their co-op more green, despite being locked into long-term contracts with far-away energy producers. The co-op has developed a conservation program that allows residents and businesses to buy and install ground-based heat pumps which helps conserve energy.

Even the Hotchkiss Fire Department, made up entirely of volunteers who are also coal-miners, adopted green building designs in its new fire house.

But just as those communities are putting of a fight to "not become Vail," another downslope village from Aspen is apparently poised to become much like its upscale, upslope neighbor.

The Aspen Times reports that Carbondale officials said the streets of their little town 30 miles from Aspen will soon be full of trucks and other work vehicles ferrying supplies and workers to and from a pile of new construction projects.

New commercial projects will send revenue flooding into city coffers that were once nearly depleted. A plethora of mixed-use developments are planned for the "transportation corridor," that will offer retail space with living quarters above. Those developments will be designed with a "walkable community" in mind, and give residents the option of living close to where they work.

Some developers said this is just the beginning for the formerly low-key village, and predicted that retiring baby boomers will keep development booming for the next decade.

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