As the clock ticks down on the Colowyo mine court order, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner took the case to the Senate floor Thursday with a public plea for the Interior Department to appeal the ruling before the looming 80-day deadline.
Gardner spoke bluntly about the economic catastrophe the court’s decision would have on the towns of Craig and Meeker if the Interior Department does nothing to rectify the situation, which they caused in the first place.
Gardner described the impact on those small, rural communities and the ripple effect that a 200 job lose will have on an economy that would be crippled by the mine’s closure – a $200 million economic impact in itself.
Gardner subtly reminded the federal government that it also gets millions of dollars a year in taxes from the mine.
This truly is a bleak situation for northwest Colorado, and this time we need more than just letters from lawmakers.
We need the entire Colorado delegation to literally make a federal case over this as Gardner is doing, otherwise the government bureaucracy and court system will just steamroll over those communities.