US Crafting Plan to Stem Coal-Plant Closures, Energy Chief Says

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration is working on a “market-based” plan to stem the closure of US coal-fired power plants as it seeks to supply more electricity before an expected boom in demand from artificial intelligence, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. 

Wright, who also serves as the vice-chair of the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council, declined to provide specifics of the proposal other than to say the “general mechanism” of it would be market-based in an effort to remove obstacles “so entrepreneurs can build new systems and operate the ones they’ve got already.” 

President Donald Trump is expected to speak about the effort, Wright added. 

“We’ve got to not only grow new production, but we’ve got to stop digging the hole, which means stop shutting down existing, viable, economic plants,” Wright said in an interview Thursday following a tour of a Louisiana liquefied natural gas export facility. 

Wright’s remarks come as demand for electricity to feed power-thirsty data centers needed for AI, new factories and the electrification of the economy is expected to surge. Trump has called for more fossil fuel use while criticizing renewable energy as unreliable. While natural gas-fired plants are expected to supply the bulk of growth in the short term, Trump has floated coal as a power source for data centers.

Trump, in his first term, made efforts to throw a lifeline to cash-strapped coal and nuclear power plants, including a plan to invoke emergency authority typically reserved for natural disasters and other crises to order pay some to stay online to “serve the public interest.” Another initiative involved forcing the nation’s grid operators to buy their electricity.

Still, Wright has previously acknowledged that a renaissance of dwindling coal-fired power isn’t expected. Coal accounts for about 15% of power generation in the US today, down from more than half in 2000, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

An additional 120 coal-fired power plants are scheduled to shut down in the next five years in part because of environmental regulations that have made them uneconomic, said Michelle Bloodworth, president of the America’s Power trade group representing utilities and miners. Bloodworth said she’s hopeful Trump will use his authority to help coal plants following his declaration of an energy emergency during his first day in office. 

In addition to contributing to global warming, pollution from coal-fired power plants causes an increased risk of heart attacks, respiratory illnesses, cancer and premature death, according to the Sierra Club. 

“The truth is 99% of coal plants are more expensive to operate than wind or solar sources in the same region,” the environmental group said in a statement.  “Propping up coal steals money from our pockets.”

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