After years of lawsuits from conservationists and pressure put on by local stakeholders, Colorado’s largest industrial methane polluter will capture and burn off the potent greenhouse gas. Mountain Coal, the owner of the West Elk Mine near Paonia, hopes to reduce the mine’s emissions by at least 85 percent.
When Blondie’s Diner closes around 9 p.m. and a table of hunters finish their green chili cheeseburgers and head back to their hotel, the town of Naturita feels a bit like a ghost town.
There are two new marijuana dispensaries still open late with green neon signs, but on a November night at the start of hunting season, not many customers are partaking.
It’s a good day when Tammie Delaney hears a train rumbling down the tracks outside of the century-old granary building she owns in Hayden.
“Oh, you get the train noise today!” she shouts as a train whistle pierces the usual silence in the small town of about 2,000 people.