Coal-fired power plants emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and toxic heavy metals like mercury. The plants drive global climate change, create smog and acid rain, and produce millions of tons of toxic ash that can pollute local water supplies.
Building new wind and solar farms is generally cheaper than running existing coal-fired power plants. Operating aging coal infrastructure ranges from $31 to $114 per MWh, making it economically uncompetitive against modern renewables in most places. Among non-renewables, only natural gas is highly competitive with a marginal cost for existing plants around $24 to $39 per MWh, heavily undercutting coal due to efficient combustion.
Against this backdrop, the Trump administration has leveraged federal emergency powers to force six old coal-fired power plants to stay online, claiming they are crucial to maintaining grid reliability. State regulators, utilities, and grid operators had already deemed these facilities unnecessary and spent years planning for their retirement. Some are even broken or have sat idle because the grid doesn’t need their power.
As of early August, the administration’s stay open orders have cost taxpayers $430 million, and most of the plants are not even producing electricity.
It appears that the DoE will continue blocking coal plants from shuttering. There are more than 20 of them that are supposed to close over the next two years. The next batch is slated to retire this December.
**********
References:
Trump’s DOE keeps forcing coal plants to stay open
