Over the last two decades, utilities have closed hundreds of coal-fired power plants in favor of cheaper options like wind, solar and natural gas. The shift has cut U.S. carbon emissions and air pollution.
But since returning to office, the administration has issued emergency orders to keep eight coal units operating past their planned retirement dates, arguing that their closure would raise power bills and threaten grid stability. Environmental groups and several states have challenged the orders, saying the retirements are part of a planned transition, not a crisis.
Now, the administration is also facing pushback from two Colorado utilities, which say the federal government’s order is both unnecessary and unconstitutional.
In the request, Tri-State and Platte River say they’ve built sufficient solar and wind farms, and no longer need Craig 1. By forcing the power plant to stay open, the plant owners say they’ve been forced to buy coal and invest in maintaining the facility, unnecessary expenses that amount to an “uncompensated taking” of their property in violation of the Constitution.
The U.S. Department of Energy declined an interview request for this story. In an emailed statement, Caroline Murzin, an agency spokesperson, said the U.S. needs vast amounts of additional electricity generation to support domestic manufacturing and the ongoing artificial intelligence boom.
“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, the Energy Department is unleashing energy dominance to reduce energy costs for American families and strengthen the electric grid,” Murzin said.
So you want to keep a coal power plant that even the operators don’t want online, and violate the constitution again, so you can support your pedo-tech buddies and shove AI down our throats?
Maybe I’m missing something, but what exactly is stopping the owners just, you know, not keeping it running?
Give all the workers a 4 week paid holiday. Stop paying for coal shipments.
If the government want to keep it running I’m sure they can find a few hundred people trained and qualified to keep a coal power plant operating…
Weirdly the law.
The federal government may have some level of legal jurisdiction. If the power company stops running the coal plant, in potential violation, they may incur fines or worse. In your example it could be argued as criminal/willful negligence.
Since the federal government is a powerful entity, the power companies have decided it is cheaper to just follow the potentially legal directive until the matter is settled on court. In fact their argument is that they have to charge their customers twice, so the cost for them is actually fairly minimal because they’re just directly passing the cost on.
I don’t know the specifics of the language being used here, but as an example let’s say the law is, “In cases of emergency, the federal government may require power companies to keep their plants open.” A reasonable law. Except “emergency” isn’t defined. So we go to the courts to determine what is reasonable, which takes long time.
raise power bills and threaten grid stability
So we’ll also be cancelling these fucking LLM datacenters right? Right??
Coal is antiquated and unnecessary as an electricity generating fuel.
It does have some niche uses for very specific types of vehicles. But yeah for power grid generation it’s fucking worthless.
I mean, it’s also disproportionately expensive, both in terms of capital and labor. The joke of this is Trump just kinda paying off coal barons to do nothing, because the pastiche of the coal mining community is more important to him than the generation of electricity.
Remember to tell the tRump regime : “Fuck you. Make me.” But also back it up with the constitutionally protected force in order to drive it home.
Oops it broke, 🤷 and then shut it down anyways. Will Trump pay to fix it? He won’t.
