https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/coal-generation-trump-1.4977247
Coal-fired plants shutting down, despite Trump's promises
With cheaper natural gas and renewables, aging coal generators too
expensive to keep up
Thomson Reuters · Posted: Jan 14, 2019 11:08 AM ET
More U.S. coal-fired power plants were shut in President Donald Trump's
first two years than were retired in the whole of Barack Obama's first
term, despite the Republican administration's efforts to prop up the
industry to keep a campaign promise to coal-mining states.
In total, more than 23,400 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired generation were
shut in 2017-2018 versus 14,900 MW in 2009-2012, according to data from
Reuters and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Trump has tried to roll back rules on climate change and the environment
that discouraged coal generation adopted during the Obama administration
to fulfil pledges to voters in states like West Virginia and Wyoming.
But the second highest year for coal shutdowns was in Trump's second
year, 2018, at around 14,500 megawatts, following a peak at about 17,700
megawatts in 2015 under Obama.
One megawatt can power about 1,000 U.S. homes.
Coal capacity peaked in 2011
The number of U.S. coal plants has continued to decline every year since
coal capacity peaked at just over 317,400 MW in 2011, and is expected to
keep falling as consumers demand power from cleaner and less expensive
sources of energy.
Cheap natural gas and the rising use of renewable power like solar and
wind have kept electric prices relatively low for years, making it
uneconomic for generators to keep investing in older coal and nuclear
plants.
Generators said they plan to shut around 8,422 MW of coal-fired power
and 1,500 MW of nuclear in 2019, while adding 10,900 MW of wind, 8,200
MW of solar and 7,500 MW of gas, according to Reuters and EIA data.
The predictions come from estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters and U.S.
Energy Information Administration data.
Since taking office in January 2017, the Trump administration has
announced its intention to leave the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate
change and is relaxing Obama-era rules on emissions from power plants as
it seeks to boost domestic production of oil, gas and coal.
U.S. carbon dioxide emissions rose in 2018
U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, spiked in
2018 after falling for the previous three years as cold weather spurred
gas demand for heating and the booming economy pushed planes and trucks
to guzzle fuel, according to a study by Rhodium Group, an independent
research group.
After falling to 5,144 million tonnes in 2017, the lowest since 1992,
the EIA projected U.S. energy-related carbon emissions will rise to
5,299 million tonnes in 2018.
"There will be a limit to what increasingly cheap renewable power and
continuously cheap natural gas can deliver with respect to emissions
reductions," said John Larsen, a director at Rhodium Group who leads the
firm's power sector research, noting the rising use of gas to produce
power as coal plants shut. Natural gas emits about half the carbon as coal.
The Trump administration has also tried to slow the retirement of coal
and nuclear plants through a directive in 2017 from Energy Secretary
Rick Perry to subsidize the aging units, arguing they make the electric
grid more resilient.
That plan was bashed by advocates for gas, renewable power and consumers
and unanimously rejected by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC), led by former Chairman Kevin McIntyre. The plan could
resurface now that Trump has a chance to replace McIntyre, who died on
Jan. 2.