Coloradans find new careers as the state phases out coal

Video Description

(5 Dec 2025) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Craig, Colorado – 10 October 2025 1. Sunrise over mountains 2. Matthew Cooper picks up work backpack and walks out of kitchen 3. Matthew Cooper gets in truck to drive to work at ColoWyo coal mine 4. Medium of dashboard clock in car 5. Medium of Matthew Cooper driving truck to work at ColoWyo coal mine ASSOCIATED PRESS Hamilton, Colorado – 9 October 2025 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Cooper, heavy machine operator: “It’s kind of cool knowing that I'm producing coal and it's going to the plant and generating electricity for lots of people.” ASSOCIATED PRESS Craig, Colorado – 10 October 2025 7. Various of early morning shots of cars and power lines around Craig ASSOCIATED PRESS Hamilton, Colorado – 9 October 2025 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Cooper, heavy machine operator: “The mines are a large part of what Craig is. Without them around I could see a lot of stuff going away.” ASSOCIATED PRESS Craig, Colorado – 8 October 2025 ++MUTE++ 9. Aerial of coal pit at Trapper Mine 10. SOUNDBITE (English) Kirstie McPherson, Craig Chamber of Commerce: “The economics around coal has definitely changed a lot. It's not the cheapest energy anymore.” 11. Medium smoke stacks at Trapper Mine 12. SOUNDBITE (English) Kirstie McPherson, Craig Chamber of Commerce: “The coal industry is leaving northwest Colorado and Colorado just in general.” 13. Tight smoke stacks at Trapper Mine 14. SOUNDBITE (English) Kirstie McPherson, Craig Chamber of Commerce: “That will be a total loss of 50% or more in our tax revenue from Moffat County.” ASSOCIATED PRESS Hamilton, Colorado – 9 October 2025 15. Various of Matt Cooper (dad) and sons Matthew and Nathan Cooper doing maintenance on their new drill to drill bore holes for geothermal energy 16. SOUNDBITE (English) Matt Cooper, owner, High Altitude Geothermal: “My family has worked in producing energy for other people to consume in various forms for 105 years.” 17. Matthew giving instructions to his sister Anna Cooper UPSOUND: "You’re gonna grease the surface. There’s one there and one on the other side." 18. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Cooper, heavy machine operator: “Now that the coal mine’s going away we're transferring into geothermal to try to have something to keep us going.” 19. Tight of Anna Cooper’s muddy work boots 20. Medium of Anna Cooper greasing parts and brother Matthew Cooper monitoring 21. SOUNDBITE (English) Matt Cooper, owner, High Altitude Geothermal: “My family is working at installing our first ground-source heat sink.” 22. Tight of Nathan Cooper wiping a component of drill 23. SOUNDBITE (English) Matt Cooper, owner, High Altitude Geothermal: “It’s not an on again, off again, the wind’s not blowing, the sun’s not shining. It’s there. It’s there today, it’s there tomorrow.” ++MUTE++ 24. Aerial of drill installing geothermal outside Cooper family home, where Matt and Kristine Cooper raised Nathan, Anna and Matthew 25. Medium of family lowering drill component onto ground to prepare to drill 26. Tight of Anna Cooper UPSOUND: "Alright, lift her up." 27. Tight of dirty hands working lever 28. SOUNDBITE (English) Matt Cooper, owner, High Altitude Geothermal: “It’s our chance to start a company, run a company, make a difference.” 29. Various of drill bit spinning and then shooting out mud and lowering into ground to bore a hole 30. SOUNDBITE (English) Matt Cooper, owner, High Altitude Geothermal: “If it doesn’t work out, we would be back to punching a clock.” 31. Various of Matthew Cooper working control panel 33. Various of power lines Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/68bff392f5f04c4fa04f9bc4ce6a087c