08/08/2026
This will be the final post from Ennis Steel Revival.
ESR has been filed away.
The approximately $7 million manufacturing project we envisioned for Craig will not be built. We're not asking anyone to resurrect it, and we're not writing this because we believe ESR was entitled to succeed.
Maybe it would have succeeded.
Maybe it would have failed.
What bothers us is that Craig will probably never know.
Watching Moffat County now undertake a public, research-based examination of data centers leaves us with one simple question:
Why wasn't ESR evaluated this way?
We weren't afraid of scrutiny. We wanted it.
We put our projected numbers forward. We did the footwork. We talked to people in this community. We asked residents what they thought about bringing manufacturing back to Craig. We listened to support, criticism and concerns.
Our proposal wasn't supposed to be accepted because we said it was a good idea.
Our numbers were supposed to be challenged.
ESR proposed roughly $7 million in manufacturing investment, built around producing goods that could be sold across the country—bringing outside dollars back into Moffat County while creating industrial employment here.
Maybe our financing wouldn't have survived examination.
Maybe our job projections were wrong.
Maybe our operating costs didn't work.
Maybe somebody could have demonstrated that another use of Craig's infrastructure was dramatically better.
Fine. Put the numbers on the table and prove it.
That's why the current discussion about data centers is frustrating.
Data centers have real advantages. They can bring enormous private investment, substantial tax revenue, construction employment and good-paying technical careers. Some permanent positions also overlap with skills already here—electrical, HVAC, controls, maintenance and facilities operations.
Those benefits should absolutely be counted.
But count everything else too.
How many people will permanently work inside the facility after construction ends?
Not construction jobs.
Not indirect economic activity.
Not "jobs supported."
Permanent direct employees.
What will they earn?
How many can realistically be filled by people already living in Northwest Colorado?
What education, certifications or retraining will be required?
That's particularly important in a community whose economic strength has historically been skilled industrial labor—miners, operators, mechanics, electricians, welders, fabricators, drivers, construction workers and heavy-equipment operators.
Replacing an industrial economy should involve more than replacing its tax base. It should replace careers.
Then there's electricity.
How many megawatts will the facility require?
What generation and transmission upgrades will be necessary?
Who pays for them?
What protections exist for residential and small-business ratepayers?
And what other future industries become harder to attract once enormous amounts of available electrical capacity are committed to one customer?
Then there's water.
How much will actually be consumed?
Where will it come from?
What cooling technology will be used?
What happens during drought?
Those aren't anti-development questions.
They're Western Colorado questions.
Especially considering what Craig has spent years building along the Yampa River.
We've invested millions and years into the Yampa River corridor and Craig River Park while talking about recreation as part of our economic diversification.
So the river has economic value too.
So does wildlife.
Moffat County proudly markets itself as the "Elk Hunting Capital of the World."
An elk doesn't show up on an economic-development spreadsheet as a multimillion-dollar investment.
But hunters buy fuel.
They stay in hotels.
They eat in restaurants.
They hire outfitters.
They buy equipment.
They pay guides.
They pay meat processors—yes, even the butcher matters.
They hire taxidermists.
The same domino effect exists with fishing, rafting, camping and outdoor recreation.
That's economic development too.
So ask about environmental impact.
Ask about noise from cooling and electrical equipment.
Ask about backup generators.
Ask about emissions.
Ask about transmission corridors.
Ask about lighting.
Ask about wildlife habitat and migration.
Ask about water.
Ask about the Yampa.
We're not claiming a data center will destroy the river, ruin elk hunting or send everyone's electric bill through the roof.
We don't have enough information to make those claims.
And that's precisely the point.
Before declaring something a great economic opportunity, get the information.
Moffat County has also explored other enormous and controversial economic-development ideas in the past, including nuclear-waste-related development. Now we're discussing data centers.
Neither should automatically be rejected simply because it's big, unfamiliar or controversial.
But Moffat County also shouldn't confuse BIG with BETTER.
We're a rural county of roughly 13,000 people.
Craig isn't Denver.
It isn't Phoenix.
It isn't Dallas.
And it shouldn't have to become one to survive.
Large metropolitan areas have enormous labor pools, universities, housing inventories, multiple industries, specialized contractors and tax bases capable of absorbing massive infrastructure projects differently.
In a small community, one enormous project can have an enormous effect—good or bad.
Scale matters.
And there's a deeper irony here.
We're trying to diversify because we're discovering what happens when a small community becomes heavily dependent on a handful of enormous industries and employers.
So why would the solution automatically be finding another giant?
Maybe Moffat County doesn't need one billion-dollar answer.
Maybe it needs twenty $5–50 million answers.
Manufacturing.
Energy.
Agriculture.
Value-added agricultural products.
Technology.
Tourism.
Hunting.
Outdoor recreation.
Fabrication.
Regional distribution.
Skilled trades.
Small businesses.
Industries that can grow with Craig instead of requiring Craig to grow around them.
That's diversification.
And that's why ESR deserved an apples-to-apples evaluation.
For every serious project proposed as Craig's economic future, publish the same information:
Capital investment.
Permanent direct jobs.
Average wages.
Workforce compatibility.
Tax revenue.
Tax incentives.
Electrical demand.
Water consumption.
Infrastructure requirements.
Noise and emissions.
Environmental impacts.
Effects on wildlife and recreation.
Effects on existing businesses.
And how much money ultimately stays circulating in Moffat County.
Then compare them.
Manufacturing versus data centers.
Technology versus tourism.
Energy versus agriculture.
Small projects versus mega-projects.
Apples to apples.
If a data center wins that comparison?
Good. The numbers won.
ESR isn't afraid of that conclusion.
The frustrating part is that this is exactly the examination we wanted.
We talked to residents.
We asked what people thought.
We made our projected numbers available.
We attempted to generate public discussion.
We were prepared to defend our assumptions.
And we were prepared to have someone prove us wrong.
Instead, ESR eventually went into a file.
So the question we're leaving behind isn't:
"Why didn't you build ESR?"
It's:
"Was ESR actually a worse opportunity—or was it simply never evaluated thoroughly enough for anyone to know?"
Those are very different things.
ESR will probably never be built.
We'll never know whether it could have become a successful manufacturer employing people in Craig and selling Colorado-made products across the country.
Maybe it would have stood.
Maybe it wouldn't have.
Craig never got to find out.
But Moffat County's future hasn't been filed away.
So perhaps ESR can leave this community with one useful idea:
Don't try to save Craig with another giant. Build a Craig that doesn't need to be saved by one.
Don't automatically reject technology.
Don't automatically favor manufacturing.
Don't sacrifice tourism for industry.
Don't sacrifice industry for technology.
Don't sacrifice the Yampa, wildlife or our Western Colorado identity chasing an investment announcement.
And don't reject an opportunity simply because its investment number isn't measured in billions.
Demand the math from everyone.
Count what comes in.
Count what goes out.
Count the jobs.
Count the resources.
Count the existing businesses affected.
Count how many times those dollars circulate locally.
And give the people who actually have to live with these decisions a meaningful voice before those decisions are effectively made for them.
ESR started because we believed Craig deserved another option.
It ends believing exactly the same thing.
Good luck, Craig.
Whatever comes next, make them prove it's worth it.
