The Trump administration says it’s the era of “mine, baby, mine.” The federal government is tossing money at power plants to keep them burning coal, but a main electricity provider in Wyoming says it’s sticking with plans to fully convert a coal plant to natural gas by the end of the year.
The Trump administration announced this week $625 million to “reinvigorate” the coal industry, which has declined since its peak in 2007.
“These funds will help keep our nation’s coal plants operating and will be vital to keeping electricity prices low and the lights on without interruption,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright in the press release.
Wyoming politicians are cheering this on, saying it’s great news for the top producing coal state in the nation.
“This whole thing unshackles the energy industry from anti-coal production,” said Wyoming’s Gov. Mark Gordon in a Tuesday press call.
He spoke specifically about the federal money that will go toward coal power plants slated to close or switch fully to natural gas. It’s unclear how much will go to Wyoming, but Gordon said he hopes companies will upgrade their aging power plants, so they can burn both coal and natural gas depending on markets.
“That probably would be something that they'll start working on here pretty, pretty quickly,” Gordon said.
Rocky Mountain Power, a subsidiary of the multi-state utility PacifiCorp, owns several coal power plants in Wyoming. Some of the units have switched to natural gas and others have plans to.
Spokesperson David Eskelsen said a retrofit to simultaneously burn coal and gas is, “Theoretically, it's certainly possible, but whether it would be cost effective is another question altogether.”
Despite the federal announcement, Eskelsen said the company still plans to fully switch its Naughton coal power plant, near Kemmerer, to natural gas at the end of the year.
“Our planning horizons tend to operate on much longer terms than changes in federal policy,” Eskelsen said. “There's no way that we can really speculate on what future changes might do.”
Eskelsen said the company has taken an all of the above energy approach, meaning it sees coal, natural gas, renewables and nuclear as part of the mix. He added that while coal is more dependable than renewables, it’s more expensive.
“The cost of our coal units has had a huge impact on the price that customers pay,” Eskelsen said.
Wyomingites have seen numerous rate hikes in recent years, causing their electricity bills to go up.
“So the job as a utility is to take the advantages of all resource types and use them together to create a useful product for customers,” he said.
Last year, Rocky Mountain Power switched two of the units at its Jim Bridger coal power plant, near Rock Springs, to natural gas. It plans to do the same for three of the four units at its Dave Johnston coal plant in Converse County by the end of the decade. The other unit will fully retire in 2027.
However, in the company’s latest resource management plan, released this past spring, it removed a retirement date for its Wyodak coal plant in Campbell County. Also, the two remaining coal-fired units at Jim Bridger will be retrofitted with carbon capture technology. The idea is to use carbon capture to release less emissions, although it’s largely unproven on a commercial scale. The company is moving forward with retrofit plans to comply with a Wyoming mandate, although that may soon be rolled back.
The Department of Interior also announced this week it’ll open up 13.1 million more federal acres to coal mining. This is also part of Pres. Trump’s executive orders for “Unleashing American Energy” and “reinvigorating” coal.
Part of the acreage will include the West Antelope III project, which is in northeast Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, the top producing coal region in the nation. The lease sale for this land is scheduled to happen in person Oct. 8 in Cheyenne. It’s the first coal lease sale in Wyoming since 2012.
During the press call, Gordon was also excited about the additional mining. But he weighed in on what this means for CO2 emissions.
“I think probably the answer is fairly clear. There'll be more CO2 production,” Gordon said.
But he added that more investment in coal will help advance technology to make it a more eco-friendly product.
Burning coal is the largest contributor to climate change according to multiple studies, but it’s the second largest energy source worldwide. Scientists generally agree those emissions must be reduced to limit the worst impacts. However, the Trump administration is trying to roll back findings that show those emissions are harmful.
Trump also recently called climate change a “con-job” at a United Nations meeting.
