COLSTRIP, Mont. – This city, with its massive coal-fired power plant and rich coal mine next to it, is definitely Trump Country. As a candidate, Donald Trump repeatedly promised a coal revival. But since he took office, U.S. coal consumption has hit a 41-year low and coal plant closures have actually accelerated. The next to fall, in December, will be Colstrip units 1 and 2, which have been keeping the lights on throughout the Pacific Northwest since 1975. Shutting down one-third of the capacity of the largest coal plant west of the Mississippi comes even after Trump scrapped the Obama-era Clean Power Plan and his administration pledged $39 million to make coal plants run cleaner. “There’s nothing he can do about it,” said Randy Hardy, an energy consultant and former head of the Bonneville Power Administration. “The market economics are so compelling that absent massive federal government subsidies to keep coal alive, you couldn’t do it Cheap natural gas from fracking is making coal less competitive, along with falling prices for wind and solar power. Puget Sound Energy, a major utility in Washington state and co-owner of the Colstrip plant, is rapidly moving away from coal power, which currently makes up 38 percent of its electricity portfolio. “It’s driven off of economics,” said Ron Roberts, PSE’s director of generation. “It’s just going to become more and more expensive to run a coal-fired power plant.” Talen Energy owns 50 percent of Colstrip 1 and 2. In a statement, Talen President Dale Lebsack said the decision to close the units “comes after extensive review and exhaustive efforts over the last few years to address the financial challenges that these units face.” Climate politics are also killing coal and driving down future demand. Washington state passed a law that its utilities must be coal-free by 2025. The state’s lone coal plant in Centralia will begin phasing out production in 2020. Oregon’s last remaining coal plant in Boardman will completely shut down its 550 MW of generation by the end of 2020. Oregon’s utilities must be coal-free by 2035. Coal plant closures are also scheduled in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Utah. In all, the amount of power produced by burning coal is expected to drop by more than half by 2030, from 34,000 MW to 16,000 MW. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coal-industry-decline-trump-revival
Well, at least there's still shale gas. https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/26/america-climate-hero-steve-moore/
There's going to be a huge market for lumps of coal to put in Democrats' Christmas stockings when the impeachment thingie implodes.
Exactly, decline of coal is due to market forces. Trump just lied to coal miners (big surprise!) and used it as excuse to gut environmental and safety laws.
Wait, they consider Montana part of the pacific Northwest? I honestly had no idea that Oregon even had a coal plant. I always assumed that most of our electricity is dam related, but according to this page https://www.oregon.gov/energy/energy-oregon/Pages/Electricity-Mix-in-Oregon.aspx almost a 3rd of our power comes from coal.
PGE has a coal burning plant in Boardman, but plans to close it in a year or so. I think they also buy some power from other coal plants in the region at peak load times, but they are moving away from that and towards renewable sources. https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-general-electric-renewable-energy-coal-plant-closures/
Colstrip is a nice town, I go up there to get fireworks for the 4th every year. They practically give them away. That whole area of the Northern Cheyenne reservation is really cool country. I hope the locals can adjust without too much heartache.
That's it, we can build the wall with coal! It'll be black just like Trump wants. "Look at my African-American wall!" barfo
I don't recall us having a coal fired plant but Washington has one in Centralia. I've looked in the blast furnace while it was operating.
