Socialism!!! Except In Wyoming, Where State Policy Propping Up Dying Coal Plants Is Freedom . . .

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Let me explain. The energy market has changed and no one person or legislature can change it back. Energy markets are telling us that coal is no longer king when it comes to being the cost-minimizing source of energy. In Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Colorado, electric utilities have calculated that retiring coal plants will save customers money. Here in Wyoming, Rocky Mountain Power has compared the costs to operate its coal units to see how they compare to other available energy sources. Rocky Mountain Power’s analysis suggests that retiring the Naughton plant in Kemmerer by 2022 and replacing its output with cheaper market purchases, including Wyoming wind power, could save customers $175 million. Rocky Mountain Power’s parent company, PacifiCorp, has also stressed that over 60 percent of its coal units are now more expensive to run than alternatives.

This coal bailout bill would make Rocky Mountain Power find an outside buyer to operate uneconomic coal plants, and then require the utility to buy back high-cost power from the new owner. Bill proponents claim that any such coal contract would need to be less expensive than other sources to be approved. But Rocky Mountain Power has already done the math! Unless a new owner intends to cut corners on environmental cleanup or slash worker benefits, it’s hard to see how someone else could run these aging coal plants more cheaply and effectively than Rocky Mountain Power.

The electricity industry is undergoing fundamental and permanent changes, and Wyoming’s coal communities need and deserve help. That means embracing our state’s immense potential to generate wind and solar power, finding ways to use coal for profitable materials, and providing transition funding for displaced workers But a bill that claims to “save coal” by charging energy customers more, slashing worker benefits, and preventing cleanup of Wyoming’s land and water is not the answer.

The market is talking and it is telling us that this bill will not reverse the decline of the coal industry, and that it will only delay critical conversations we all need to be having about how to help Wyoming’s coal-dependent communities benefit from the inevitable transition to a cleaner energy future.

EDIT

https://climatecrocks.com/2019/03/11/fossil-fuel-at-the-socialist-trough/#more-55170