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Dylan Anderson

Republican House Candidate says Colorado is ‘gambling’ with workers futures as it shutters coal industry

Former Craig City Council member Nathan Butler is running to unseat Democratic Rep. Meghan Lukens in the race for Colorado House District 26.

Republican House candidate Nathan Butler says Colorado’s aggressive push to shudder its coal industry is “literally gambling” with the future of workers in communities like Craig and that the state’s burdensome regulatory environment is standing in the way of new jobs being created.


Butler, who is running to unseat Democratic Rep. Meghan Lukens in Northwest Colorado's House District 26, resigned his role on Craig City Council in July, at the time mentioning his candidacy for the state house.


In an interview with The Yampa Valley Bugle earlier this month, Butler explained that he stepped down after eight months on council for a few reasons, all involving an agreement with Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association the city announced in June. 


In addition to being told to keep quiet about negotiations with Tri-State, Butler said he was uncomfortable with the idea held by some of his colleagues that residents should stop advocating for Craig Station to stay open. Butler said he also didn’t support a term of the agreement that said the plant would close in 2028, a timeline Tri-State detailed to state regulators last year.


“I said, well, I’m not going to stop advocating for these workers, so I’ll step down,” Butler explained. “When they were talking about setting up a meeting so that the people could come up and talk, it was, ‘We need to figure out how to tell people not to argue for keeping the coal plant here.’ … That disturbed me.”


Rather than forcing plants to close, Butler says Colorado should be an example for the rest of world for how to produce cleaner coal-fired energy. That doesn’t mean that Colorado shouldn’t transition away from coal at some point, either. Butler said that transition needs to take place after new jobs have been created to replace those lost in communities where extraction and energy industries is central to the local economy.


Standing in the way of those new jobs is Colorado’s excessive regulatory environment, Butler said. He pointed to a 2023 study from the Colorado Chamber of Commerce that found 48% of business leaders felt excessive regulation was a concern. Butler cited Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, saying that the investor won’t touch places with excessive regulations like New York or California.


“I’m worried that unless Colorado changes the way that we do some of our policy, that Colorado is going to be in the same boat,” Butler said. “That’s already kind of staring to happen, and I don’t think it is appropriate to shut down an industry in the hope that something is going to show up, when it otherwise might not because of the regulation they are putting in place.”


As for how to convince a Democratic majority in Denver to agree with him, Butler said he wants to create a metric for what bills could be considered bipartisan. He argues this would force legislators to come to the table on issues if they want to be able to flash bipartisan accomplishments to their constituents.


“If you want to call something bipartisan, as a matter of decorum, you need to get at least 50% support from the opposition party,” Butler said, explaining the potential legislation. “It forces the legislators to come together and find meaningful solutions that actually portray the disparity between the two parties and reflect our diverse opinions.”


Growing up in Texas, Butler said he signed up to join the U.S. Army when he was 17. After an injury, Butler said he was medically discharged after six and a half years of service. Since leaving the military, Butler said he decided to get more involved in the Craig community, where he has lived for four years.


Butler said he helped start a Facebook group called the “Real Craig Community Chat,” a forum that he said emphasizes freedom of speech and giving people “the opportunity to say what they want to say without fear of retribution or being shut down.”


Butler said discussions with Tri-State as a council member about Craig Station closing has informed his run for House District 26. While he admits the issue of coal-fired power production is a larger part of the economies in Moffat and Rio Blanco counties then it is in Eagle and Routt counties, Butler said energy is an issue that impacts everyone and demand is growing.


“If [energy demand doubles] and we’re relying on wind and solar, the brownouts that California is experiencing is a very real possibility in Colorado,” Butler said. “No body is going to want to come and stay at a resort to go skiing when all the ski lifts keep losing power. … We need to have an above all energy outlook and we need to really come to the table in a bipartisan way to address these concerns.”


Butler said he is supportive of the prospects of passenger rail connecting Northwest Colorado to Denver, as well as connecting job centers like Steamboat Springs to “bedroom communities” like Hayden and Craig. He also wants Colorado to make it easier for local trades workers to come into schools and give students a taste of their career. This would provide a path for students to find a good job and a way for businesses to recruit future employees, he said.


On the issue of reproductive rights, Butler said he feels voters have made it clear they support access to abortion.


“I’m not going to try to make any waves on that, other than I do believe there needs to be clarity in the way the law is written because we don’t have gestational limits,” Butler said. “You could technically speaking abort up until the moment they cut the umbilical cord because there are no gestational limits. … It’s not happening, but it’s a loophole I would like to see closed.”  


When looking at Lukens two years in the Colorado House, Butler said some of her decisions related to gun rights were concerning to him. Lukens did not vote for the failed effort to ban some assault weapons during the 2024 session, but she did vote for a bill that established a three-day waiting period to buy a gun in 2023. Butler said waiting periods hurt rural economies because hunters are unlikely to buy a gun on their way through town.


He said other measures, like increasing taxes on ammunition, makes it harder for gun owners to stay trained with their firearms. Butler suggested that people buying ammunition at gun ranges should get a tax break as a way to incentivize safe gun use.


“I think this leads to a less proficient group of people who have firearms, and then they wonder why we have accidents,” Butler said. “Because you’re not encouraging people to get the training that they need. You’re making it harder.”


Top Photo Caption: Nathan Butler poses for a photo with his family. (Nathan Butler/Courtesy)

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