Key Takeaways
Energy Secretary Chris Wright is pointing out that it makes no sense to be closing coal plants in the United States — a country with the world’s largest coal resources.
Secretary Wright is worried that, with rapidly growing demand for electricity and government policies that provide massive aegides for energy sources such as wind and solar power, affordability and reliability of the electric grid are at risk.
Since 2015, subsidies for wind and solar power have increased 21-fold, while baseload coal plants have been closed rapidly as regulations targeting them have piled up.
Competition from heavily subsidized wind and solar and low prices for natural gas have contributed to coal’s market share loss.
With the growth of electricity demand, some utilities are already extending the operating life of their coal plants.
While the United States has not built a major new coal plant since 2013, China is building record numbers to propel their industries, providing green technologies and products they sell to the West.
It seems Energy Secretary Chris Wright has noticed China’s secret to industrialization: inexpensive coal power. China has more coal power plants than the entire electric generating fleet of the United States from all sources, and it is still building state-of-the-art coal plants with little regulation affecting their cost. The United States is not building new coal-fired plants because of onerous regulations by the Obama and Biden administrations that force the premature retirement of existing plants. Furthermore, massive subsidies and mandates for wind and solar plants make them economic despite their intermittency, providing power for a fraction of the time coal plants are capable of delivering it. The last large coal plant was brought online in the United States in 2013. With cheap coal power, China has become the world leader in making and selling “clean” energy technology that Europe and the Obama and Biden administrations forced upon consumers, allowing China to lead the world in the electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain and become the global leader in EV car sales and exports, solar panel manufacture, polysilicon production, and other clean energy products and materials.
Federal Subsidies for Wind and Solar Plants
According to Secretary Wright, in an interview with CNBC, America will not follow the German model, which the Biden administration appeared to be duplicating. He said, “Germany spent half a trillion dollars, made their electricity two to three times more expensive, and they produce 20 percent less electricity today than they did 15 years ago. We’re not going to go down that road. We want affordable, reliable, secure energy and a reindustrialization of America, not deindustrialization of America.”
According to Wright, the United States should stop the closure of coal-fired power plants, recognizing that the fuel will be essential to the nation’s power system for decades to come. According to Michelle Bloodworth, president of the America’s Power trade group representing utilities and miners, more than 120 coal-fired power plants will be shut down nationwide over the next five years. The New York Times has reported that about 780 coal-fired units have retired since 2000. Coal now generates about 15% of U.S. power generation, compared to more than 50% in 2000. Coal power plants can quickly produce power for four or five decades, while wind and solar plants are struggling to operate at their expected life of 25 years.
Wright recognizes that continually shrinking the electricity generated from coal, where capital costs have largely been paid, has made electricity more expensive and the electric grid less stable. Keeping coal plants online avoids the upfront capital costs of new natural gas or renewable energy projects. The United States also has enormous coal potential and leads the world in total proved recoverable coal reserves, ahead of Russia, Australia, China, and India, and ranks fourth in coal exports, behind Indonesia, Australia, and Russia. Keeping state-of-the-art modern mining and personnel working provides good jobs while improving skills and techniques that may prove useful for those and other endeavors.
Natural gas has also benefited from the regulations on coal that have made it more expensive to generate power and compete with gas and renewables. Natural gas generation now produces 44% of U.S. power generation, compared to 16% in 2000. Natural gas has multiple uses, including cooking, heating, industrial applications, and fuel for electric generators, making it very versatile. It is also the principal feedstock for petrochemical manufacturing and for a wide array of products, many with medical applications, including pharmaceuticals. Most coal is used to produce electricity, with the industrial sector consuming a small portion of the coal used for cement and steel production.
Secretary Wright recognizes that electricity demand is surging to power AI data centers, new factories, and state electrification goals, all requiring reliable and affordable electricity. Due to increasing electricity demand, several U.S. utilities have said they plan to keep coal-fired units operating past their scheduled retirement dates. According to the New York Times, since 2017, almost one-third of the coal units scheduled for closure have had their lifecycles extended, and others have had their scheduled closures canceled. According to the Global Energy Monitor, 4,744 megawatts of coal-fired generation was shuttered in the United States last year — the lowest figure since 2014 (4,613 megawatts), and after a five-year period (2019-2023) in which an average of nearly 12,400 megawatts was retired annually. Due to supply chain challenges, permitting delays, and interconnection issues, utilities must rely on existing coal plants rather than expand wind turbines and solar power with expensive energy storage.
Extensions of Coal Plant Retirements
Duke Energy backed away from its plan to close all its coal-fired units by 2035, delaying the retirement of its Gibson coal plant in Indiana by three years. The utility said two units at the station would be converted to burn natural gas and coal, allowing the plant to burn coal until 2038. The owners of the Columbia Energy Center in Wisconsin, which had been scheduled to close last year, said late last year they would delay that coal-fired power plant’s retirement to the end of 2029.
According to the Associated Press, Georgia Power wants to continue using coal to meet the state’s increasing electricity demand. Instead of closing a coal-fired unit at its Scherer plant north of Macon in 2028, Georgia Power wants to keep it running until 2035 or 2038. No closing date has been scheduled for its Bowen coal plant, northwest of Atlanta in Euharlee, with the company now expected to continue running it until 2035 or 2038. The company also wants to keep Alabama’s Gaston coal plant, which it owns with Alabama Power, running through 2034 instead of closing it in 2028. Gaston runs mostly on natural gas but uses some coal. Georgia Power also proposed burning natural gas alongside coal at the Scherer and Bowen plants.
Other power generators that have postponed the closure of coal-fired plants include PacifiCorp, which indicated that it could continue to use coal until at least 2045, possibly co-firing with other fuels or retrofitting coal plants with carbon capture technology. Rocky Mountain Power, the PacifiCorp division serving Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, had expected to retire the Hunter and Huntington coal-fired plants in Utah in 2036 and 2042, respectively, but could delay those retirements. Rocky Mountain Power plans to extend the life of its four coal-fired power stations in Wyoming, which get their coal mainly from the Powder River Basin — one of the largest coal-producing regions in the United States. The utility will keep three units operating at the Dave Johnston plant, along with the Jim Bridger Power Plant, the Naughton Power Plant, and the Wyodak Power Plant. While no longer scheduled for retirement, the plants could later be converted to a different fuel, most likely natural gas.
Conclusion
President Trump and his Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, want U.S. utilities to continue operating coal plants to help meet growing electricity demand, avoid blackouts, and keep the United States from deindustrializing as Germany has done with its energy transition to wind and solar power. According to Chris Wright, “Net-zero policies raise energy costs for American families and businesses, threaten the reliability of our energy system, and undermine our energy and national security. They have also achieved precious little in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.”
