'It's About Economics': Two Coal Plants to Close Despite Trump's Tweet

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Byย Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch. Reposted with permission from EcoWatch.

Trumpย is losing his rallying cry to save coal. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) voted on Thursday to retire twoย coal-fired power plants in the next few years despite a plea from the president to keep one of the plantsย open.

Earlier this week, the president posted an oddly specificย tweetย that urged the government-owned utility to save the 49-year-old Paradise 3 plant in Kentucky. It so happens that the facility burns coal supplied byย Murray Energy Corporation, whose CEO is Robert Murray, is a major Trumpย donor.

But the TVA board of directors voted 5-2 in favor of closing that plant as well as the Bull Run plant inย Tennessee.

After the vote, the agencyย tweetedย that the decision to close the plants โ€œwill ensure continued reliable power at the lowest costย feasible.โ€

The part about โ€œlowest cost feasibleโ€ is key: It simply became too expensive to maintain and operate the aging plants. As TVA CEO William Johnson theย Associated Press, โ€œIt is not about coal. This decision is aboutย economics.โ€

In anย environmental assessmentย released Monday, the agency recommended retiring the Paradise plant due to high maintenance costs, unreliability and its need forย repairs.

โ€œThe overall costs to our customers would be $320 million lower if these two plants were not in the fleet,โ€ TVA CFO John Thomas told the board, as quoted by the AP.

Keeping them open would have cost an estimated $1.3 billion in equipment and maintenance investments, according to theย Chattanooga Times Free Press.

So the board’s decision to close the plants wasn’t even based on coal being the most polluting energy source. It was so TVA customers can save money on electricity bills (the benefit of cleaner air is just aย bonus).

President Trump’s pledge to end the so-called โ€œwar on coalโ€ was one of his signature campaign promises. But coal plants areย closing at a rapid paceย because of economics and competing power sources. Asย Bloombergย wrote,ย โ€œWhat was true under President Barack Obama is still true today: Coal’s share of the power mix is declining, andย windย andย solarย remain the fastest-growing U.S. sources of electricity.โ€ Coal’s decline has also been attributed to the rise of naturalย gas.

It’s clear that Trump’s efforts were not enough to sway the TVA board’s vote, even though he appointed four of its seven members, the AP noted. One of the โ€œnoโ€ votes came from Trump-appointee Kenny Allen, a retired coal exec fromย Kentucky.

โ€œI’m just not completely comfortable with the recommendation because the impact and ripple effect on community cannot be fully quantified,โ€ he said, as quoted by the AP.

The shuttering of the two plants will cost 167 jobs at Paradise and about 100 jobs at Bull Run, and will affect the people in related jobs that support the facilities, the Chattanooga Times Free Pressย reported.

But Johnson, TVA‘s CEO, said 40 percent of the plant employees whose jobs will be displaced are eligible for retirement, and added that those who want to stay could be offered jobs elsewhere in the utility, the Chattanooga Times Free Pressย wrote.

TVA board member Virginia Lodge, an Obama-appointee, sided with theย majority.

โ€œI don’t want anybody to think we have not heard and understood the heartfelt pleas from these communities,โ€ she toldย NPR. โ€œIf we could make our decisions based on our sympathetic feeling it would be easy. Unfortunately we’ve all taken an oath to do what we think is best for the entireย Valley.โ€

TVA said on Twitter, โ€œWe will work with impacted employees andย communities.โ€

Main image:ย The Paradise Fossil Plant in western Kentucky. Credit:ย Tennessee Valley Authority,ย CC BYย 2.0

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