President Trump’s effort to keep a Kentucky coal plant from closing failed Thursday, as the Tennessee Valley Authority voted to shutter the plant.
TVA, a huge federally owned power company based in the Southeast, said it reviewed all parties’ concerns, including the president’s, in making its final decision to close the Paradise Fossil Energy plant along with another, the Bull Run coal facility.
The decision will ensure that reliable electricity is provided at the lowest cost feasible, TVA said, adding that it “will work with impacted employees and communities.”
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, along with the president, actively lobbied TVA to keep the Paradise plant open in western Kentucky. Neither of them, however, made mention of the Bull Run plant also being slated to close in Tennessee.
“Coal is an important part of our electricity generation mix and @TVAnews should give serious consideration to all factors before voting to close viable power plants, like Paradise #3 in Kentucky!” Trump posted on Twitter on Monday.
TVA CEO Bill Johnson said Thursday that the decision to close the plants is not about coal. The decision was made based on the age of the plants, environmental concerns, and the low cost of natural gas power plants and renewable energy.
The TVA is chartered to provide the best resources for its multistate service territory at the lowest price for its consumers.
It’s not just TVA that is moving away from coal, said Johnson at Thursday’s board meeting. In Kentucky alone, five coal plants owned by other companies are scheduled to close this year, he said. Over the last decade, 225 coal plants have closed nationwide, with the highest number of retirements last year, he noted.
The Paradise plant in Kentucky is being replaced by a state-of-the-art natural gas plant near the site of the existing power plant.
TVA had previously closed two boilers at the Kentucky coal plant to switch to low-cost natural gas. Thursday’s decision to close coal boiler number three was an extension of where the plant had already been going.
Natural gas has become the leading fuel for electricity production in the U.S. due to the shale energy boom.
The gas-fired power plants are also more efficient and easier to build and maintain than coal plants. They also don’t face the environment hurdles and costs associated with coal-fired plants from having to store coal waste in pits and cut mercury pollution.
Coal ash spills have been an ongoing hurdle for coal operators over the last decade in the Southeast. It is one of the reasons that Duke Energy, one of the largest coal utilities in the country, is transitioning its fleet to natural gas and renewables.
