[Sunrise over mountains]
[Matthew Cooper picking up work backpack and walking out of kitchen]
[Matthew Cooper getting in his truck to drive to work at ColoWyo coal mine]
[Dashboard clock in car]
[Matthew Cooper driving his truck to work at ColoWyo coal mine]
Matthew Cooper (interview): “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.”
[Cars and power lines around Craig]
Matthew Cooper (interview): “The mines are a large part of what Craig is. Without them around I could see a lot of stuff going away.”
[Coal pit at Trapper Mine]
Kirstie McPherson (interview): “The economics around coal has definitely changed a lot. It’s not the cheapest energy anymore.”
[Smoke stacks at Trapper Mine]
Kirstie McPherson (interview): “The coal industry is leaving northwest Colorado and Colorado just in general.”
[Smoke stacks at Trapper Mine]
Kirstie McPherson (interview): “That will be a total loss of 50% or more in our tax revenue from Moffat County.”
[Matt Cooper (dad) and sons Matthew and Nathan Cooper doing maintenance on their new drill to drill bore holes for geothermal energy]
Matt Cooper (interview): “My family has worked in producing energy for other people to consume in various forms for 105 years.”
[Matthew giving instructions to his sister Anna Cooper]
Matthew Cooper (interview): “Now that the coal mine’s going away we’re transferring into geothermal to try to have something to keep us going.”
[Anna Cooper’s muddy work boots]
[Anna Cooper greasing parts and brother Matthew Cooper monitoring]
Matt Cooper (interview): “My family is working at installing our first ground-source heat sink.”
[Nathan Cooper wiping a component of drill]
Matt Cooper (interview): “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.”
[Drill installing geothermal outside Cooper family home, where Matt and Kristine Cooper raised Nathan, Anna, and Matthew]
[Family lowering drill component onto ground to prepare to drill]
[Anna Cooper saying, “Alright, lift her up.”]
Matt Cooper (interview): “It’s our chance to start a company, run a company, make a difference.”
[Drill bit spinning and then shooting out mud and lowering into ground to bore a hole]
Matt Cooper (interview): “If it doesn’t work out, we would be back to punching a clock.”
[Matthew Cooper working control panel]
Matthew Cooper (interview): “If this doesn’t work, I’d probably have to find somewhere else that I have to work that pays comparable and I’m probably gonna have to either travel for that or move and I’d rather stay here.”
[Power lines]
[Cars driving through downtown]
[Person walking bike on street]
Kirstie McPherson (interview): “You have a whole community who has always been told you are an energy town, you’re a coal town you are this. When that starts going away, beyond just the individuals that are having the identity crisis, you have an entire culture and an entire community that it’s also having that same crisis.”
[Matt Cooper (dad) walking]
Matt Cooper (interview): Maybe we’ll never go back to coal. We haven’t went back to oil and gas. We might just be geothermal people for quite some time, maybe generations, and then eventually something else will come along.”
Matt Cooper (dad) reaching into a bin and pulling out a chunk of coal his family uses to help heat their home in winter
Matt Cooper (interview): “It’s the response to the market. You just respond.”
[Nathan Cooper standing on a platform and maneuvering drill]
[Matt Cooper’s (dad) face]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.