Amidst the recent drumbeat of increasingly dire climate news, there’s another important story to restore your hope - the US keeps moving beyond coal. In fact, US coal consumption is at the lowest level in four decades, coal plant closings doubled in Trump’s second year in office, and 2018 is on track to be a record year for coal retirements. Meanwhile, clean energy continues to skyrocket, as demonstrated by Xcel Energy, which this week became the first major US utility to commit to going 100% carbon-free. So while the news about worsening climate disruption may be a lot to take, know that there are solutions out there and people making progress every day. I want to highlight some recent Beyond Coal news to help demonstrate just that!
In the past few weeks we’ve helped secure retirements for seven coal-fired power plants across the Midwest and the South. Communities banded together to say ENOUGH to dirty air and water and the excessive climate pollution caused by these coal facilities, and to call for a just transition away from coal for workers and communities. They know the future is in clean energy.
In September, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) unveiled a plan to retire its last remaining coal-burning power plants within 10 years and replace them entirely with renewable energy - and no new fracked gas - in Northwest Indiana! This includes the R M Schahfer coal plant in Jasper County, Indiana, and the Michigan City plant near the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan..
The new clean energy will save NIPSCO customers a jaw-dropping $4.3 billion, compared to the costs of running the existing coal plants. That means new clean energy has become cheaper than running existing coal plants, even in the coal-heavy state of Indiana. That is a game changer, my friends.
Later in September, American Electric Power (AEP) announced that the 700-megawatt Oklaunion coal-fired power plant in Vernon, Texas will be shutting down no later than September 2020.This is welcome news to Texans and Oklahomans alike who currently breathe air polluted by this plant. This plant is a a top ten polluter of nitrogen oxide -- a smog forming pollutant- out of ALL industrial sites in Texas.
Our activists nationwide are amazing and spend countless hours advancing clean energy, a just transition away from fossil fuels for workers and communities, and climate action.
Then in mid-October, AEP announced it will fully shut down its Conesville, Ohio coal plant by May 2020.
In late October, Henderson Municipal Power & Light in Kentucky announced that its 300-megawatt coal plant will shut down in 2019 because it’s too expensive!
And November had its share of major Beyond Coal news as well. A settlement with Entergy Arkansas means the company will end the use of coal at its massively polluting White Bluff and Independence coal plants, retire the Lake Catherine gas plant, and increase renewable energy jobs in the state of Arkansas. The two Entergy coal-burning plants have operated for more than three decades without modern pollution controls. They have been the largest sources of air pollution in Arkansas for decades.
And last but not least, thanks to years of advocacy from residents in Michigan, the Grand Haven City Council unanimously voted to retire the Sims coal-burning power plant, effective June 2020. This brings us to 281 coal plants announced to retire since 2010. “This would not be possible without the countless members of the community who came to meetings and forums, wrote letters and made calls to push for this retirement,”said Jan O’Connell, organizing representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Michigan.
This wave of coal retirements has been accompanied by a wave of new commitments to clean energy. Xcel Energy - a utility serving 3.6 million customers - made history this week when it announced it will become 100% carbon free by 2050, the first major utility to make a 100% pledge. The announcement comes after cities across Colorado, where the utility is based, committed to 100% clean energy with our Ready for 100 campaign, and after years of advocacy by grassroots leaders across Xcel’s entire eight-state service territory who made the case for clean energy before utility commissions, state legislatures, and city councils.
As CEO Ben Fowke put it when he made the announcement, “When your customers are asking for this over and over you really do listen. Boulder, the city of Denver, Breckenridge...Pueblo, they’re considered or they have already decided that they want to pursue 100 percent renewable.”
And in Ohio, plans are moving forward for the first phase of a large solar project in the Appalachian region of the state, part of an overall 900-megawatt commitment AEP made to Sierra Club in 2015 as part of a coal retirement agreement. Supporters packed a public hearing this week to make it clear to regulators that Ohio is ready for renewable energy. Then on Wednesday, Cincinnati became the 100th city in America to commit to 100% clean energy with Ready for 100!
It’s true - our activists nationwide are amazing and spend countless hours advancing clean energy, a just transition away from fossil fuels for workers and communities, and climate action. This year is wrapping up well for the move to clean energy nationwide, and I can’t wait to see what 2019 brings. Join us.