Obama's EPA shutting down more power plants

American Electrical Power is the latest U.S. utility to announce it will close power plants as the result of more stringent rules and requirements for costly upgrades from the Environmental Protection Agency.

AEP made this disclosure in a news release June 9:

AEP’s current plan for compliance with the rules as proposed includes permanently retiring the following coal-fueled power plants:

• Glen Lyn Plant, Glen Lyn, Va. – 335 MW (retired by Dec. 31, 2014);
• Kammer Plant, Moundsville, W.Va. – 630 MW (retired by Dec. 31, 2014);
• Kanawha River Plant, Glasgow, W.Va. – 400 MW (retired by Dec. 31, 2014);
• Phillip Sporn Plant, New Haven, W.Va. – 1,050 MW (450 MW expected to retire in 2011, 600 MW retired by Dec. 31, 2014); and
• Picway Plant, Lockbourne, Ohio – 100 MW (retired by Dec. 31, 2014).

In addtion, power generation will be reduced or halted at a number of other plants while they are upgraded,  retrofitted, or see parts of their generation capacity closed for good:


AEP would retire generating units at the following locations but continue operating some generation at the sites:

• Big Sandy Plant, Louisa, Ky. – Units 1 and 2 (1,078 MW) retired by Dec. 31, 2014;
Big Sandy Unit 1 would be rebuilt as a 640-MW natural gas plant by Dec. 31, 2015;
• Clinch River Plant, Cleveland, Va. – Unit 3 (235 MW) retired by Dec. 31, 2014; Units 1 and 2 (470 MW total) would be refueled with natural gas with a capacity of 422 MW by Dec. 31, 2014;
• Conesville Plant, Conesville, Ohio – Unit 3 (165 MW) retired by Dec. 31, 2012; Units 5 and 6 (800 MW total) would continue operating with retrofits;
• Muskingum River Plant, Beverly, Ohio – Units 1-4 (840 MW) retired by Dec. 31, 2014; Muskingum River Unit 5 (600 MW) may be refueled with natural gas with a capacity of 510 MW by Dec. 31, 2014, depending on regulatory treatment in Ohio;
• Tanners Creek Plant, Lawrenceburg, Ind. – Units 1, 2 and 3 (495 MW) retired by Dec. 31, 2014; Unit 4 (500 MW) would continue to operate with retrofits; and
• Welsh Plant, Pittsburg, Texas – Unit 2 (528 MW) retired by Dec. 31, 2014; Units 1 and 3 (1,056 MW) would continue to operate with retrofits.

The two coal-fueled generating units at Northeastern Plant (935 MW) in Oolagah, Okla., would be idled for a year or more while emission reduction equipment is installed. Both units would be idled beginning Jan. 1, 2016. One unit would return to service by Dec. 31, 2016. The other unit would return to service by Dec. 31, 2017.

This announcement by AEP is on top of other closures announced previously in other states.

In March, Georgia Power announced it would close two coal-fired units to comply with EPA regulations.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is also shedding capacity.  The utility said in April it will retire 18 older coal-fired generation units at three power plants to comply with EPA regulations.

And the utility serving Marietta, Ohio is closing a plant. American Municipal Power announced last year it expects to close the Gorsuch Generation Plant by December 2012.

This list is not intended to be an exhaustive tally of plant closures. Other utilities are considering similar moves.

How many brownouts and blackouts will result from these major blows to national power generation assets?

As these plants close, jobs are lost. Tax revenue from the plants and their operations also goes away.

Because it takes a time to shutter these units, we will not see the real impact of the closures until President Obama is out of office, or perhaps well into a second term.

The dismantling of our country's coal-generated electric infrastructure was promised by our president.

We will pay the price for this folly somewhere in our not too distant future.