The Town That Took on Big Coal - and Won

Elected officials in coal country don’t square off against coal companies very often—not, at least, if they want to stay elected. But that’s just what’s happening in Routt County, Colorado. It started in June, when Peabody Energy, the world’s largest privately owned coal producer, failed to pay $1.8 million in property taxes on its Twentymile Mine, the biggest in Colorado. Peabody, the county’s largest single source of tax revenue, had filed for bankruptcy and was negotiating its debts in court. To make up for the shortfall, one local school district was forced to take out a $1 million emergency loan from the state, and a fire department in the county was shorted $60,000.