Just Transition office details grants to coal communities and legal assistance that unlocked major PUC awards

Wade Buchanan, Director of the Colorado Office of Just Transition, presented the office’s grant activity to the Joint Budget Committee and described how program funding is targeted to communities and workers affected by coal-plant and mine closures.

Buchanan said the office — a small team of seven staff, with regional presence in transition communities — manages roughly $20 million earmarked for community transition grants and about $22 million in worker-focused resources. By formula and legislative direction, about 75% of the community allocation was reserved for local grants; Buchanan said allocations included approximately $7.9 million for the Yampa Valley, $5 million for the West End, and smaller allotments to Morgan and Pueblo counties and tier-2 communities.

Since 2022 the office and its OEDIT partners have issued roughly 30 grants totaling about $11.7 million to 16–18 eligible entities; grantees have spent roughly 65% of that funding so far. Grant sizes ranged from a $2 million multiuse event center in Moffat County to modest rehabilitation and capacity-building awards in smaller towns. Buchanan emphasized the office’s statutory role: support for economic diversification, feasibility and needs assessments, technical assistance, and targeted economic development in communities facing lost property-tax bases and job losses.

Buchanan highlighted a particularly high-return activity: funding legal representation for communities in Public Utilities Commission proceedings and other administrative processes. He said that legal assistance helped secure an estimated $104 million in additional community assistance through utility and related decisions — which he described as roughly a $539 return for every state dollar spent on the program that supported community legal representation.

Committee members pressed for outcome measures for workers. Buchanan said layoffs are only beginning in many places (about 200 layoffs reported to date, with roughly 1,900 workers and families potentially affected across the state) and that the office is developing tracking metrics and working with a labor-market analyst to measure whether the supports move people into stable employment. He estimated the available funding equates to roughly $11,000 per potentially affected worker if divided evenly, and said the office prioritizes targeted services (training, job placement, financial planning, childcare and health-care supports) rather than unlimited cash transfers, consistent with legislative guidance.

Buchanan said the office intends ongoing engagement with communities to align investments with local needs and to continue building capacity and tracking outcomes as layoffs materialize.