Colorado Mountain College Expands Trades to Retain Clean Energy Talent

Aspen —The obvious take on Colorado’s energy transition is that it’s a story about megawatts. It’s about solar farms dotting the high desert and wind turbines spinning against the sky. But to hear the people driving this shift tell it, the real bottleneck isn’t generation. It’s the workforce. Specifically, the unglamorous, blue-collar trades that keep the lights on and the heat flowing.

According to the Clean Jobs Colorado report from E2, the state ranked 18th nationally for clean energy employment in 2024, with nearly 70,000 jobs. That figure is more than twice the number of fossil fuel jobs in the state. Furthermore, the clean energy industry accounts for more than 70 percent of all energy and vehicle-related jobs here. Yet, as Patricia Rothwell, executive director of the Energy Efficiency Business Coalition, points out, the sector getting the most attention isn’t always the one doing the heavy lifting.

“While solar and wind often get the spotlight as the dominant clean energy sectors, cost-effective energy efficiency has been an anchor and continues to be a driving force behind Colorado’s clean energy growth,” Rothwell said.

This distinction matters for folks living outside the Front Range. The state’s 2025 Climate Workforce Analysis & Plan identifies 20 climate-critical occupations, ranging from HVACR mechanics to electrical engineers. But the plan also highlights a geographic disparity: access to training is often limited in rural communities because programs are concentrated along the I-25 corridor. For the Western Slope, this creates a retention problem. We train young people in local high schools, but they often leave for Denver or Boulder to attend university, rarely returning.

That is where Colorado Mountain College (CMC) enters the narrative. Under the leadership of Jim Jones, the program director for skilled crafts and trades, the college has aggressively expanded its capacity in recent years. The strategy is straightforward: bring the training home. CMC offers hands-on programs in HVAC, automotive service technology, carpentry, welding, and ski area operations. Demand has been strong, prompting Jones to increase training slots. He has also secured grants to purchase new equipment, ensuring students learn on the same tools they’ll encounter on the job.

The local stakes are high. To meet regional Climate Action Plan goals — reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050 — we must drastically cut the energy used by our buildings. This requires retrofitting existing homes, electrifying heating systems, and improving insulation. None of that happens without a steady stream of electricians, plumbers, and contractors who understand these new technologies.

Jones sees this expansion not just as an academic exercise, but as a way to keep talent local. By offering credible, accredited training in the valley, CMC gives students a reason to stay. The question is whether this pipeline is wide enough to meet the state’s ambitious net-zero targets. With voters approving a ballot measure in 2025 to support continued investment in these programs, the community has signaled its intent to fund the fix.

As Jones puts it, the goal is to ensure that when the work needs to be done, the people who can do it are already here.