Indiana Republican Rep. Larry has a new bill to subsidize coal plants.
Credit: Rep. Larry Bucshon/Flickr
President Trump has pledged a coal revival, but America’s utilities aren’t listening.
U.S. power companies are set to unplug almost 12 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity this year, or about 4 percent of the American coal fleet, according to an E&E News review of federal figures. More than half of those retirements were announced after Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Analysts said an economic maelstrom is responsible for the trend. Capacity prices for reserve electricity, long a moneymaker for coal plants, remain low in many parts of the country. Competition from natural gas remains stiff, with no apparent uptick in gas prices in sight. And renewables, improving on cost and performance, continue to eat up coal’s market share.
“All of those are suppressing the economics of existing coal plants,” said Metin Celebi, an analyst who tracks the power sector at the Brattle Group.
The closures underscore the challenges facing Trump and congressional Republicans, who have launched a concerted effort to […]
This is another issue where the GOP and I part company (global warming is a third). Whenever some Republican politician tries to prop up coal I find it mind-numbingly shortsighted. But the market will solve this problem, even if the politicians can’t or won’t.