Two Ohio coal-fired plants to close, deepening industry decline

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters



Mon Mar 20, 2017 | 4:55pm EDT

By Emily Flitter | NEW YORK

Electricity company Dayton Power & Light said on Monday it would shut down two coal-fired power plants in southern Ohio next year for economic reasons, a setback for the ailing coal industry but a victory for environmental activists.

Republican President Donald Trump promised in his election campaign to restore U.S. coal jobs that he said had been destroyed by environmental regulations put into effect by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.

Dayton Power & Light, a subsidiary of The AES Corporation, said in an emailed statement that it planned to close the J.M. Stuart and Killen plants by June 2018 because they would not be "economically viable beyond mid-2018." Coal demand has flagged in recent years due to competition from cheap and plentiful natural gas.

The plants along the Ohio River in Adams County employ some 490 people and generate about 3,000 megawatts of power for coal.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-coal-closures-idUSKBN16R2D4

[Maeve]

1. But...but...tRump promised!!!!

Make coal great again! (or was that something about a coal grate???)

[cstanleytech]

2. Maybe he meant Colgate as in the toothpaste?

[msanthrope]

3. Coal isn't coming back. Somebody tell the Red States. nt

[Salviati]

5. And it's not environmental regulation that will perform the coup de gras...

... it's going to be the invisible hand of the market that the conservatives love so much. Coal just isn't profitable in the era of cheap natural gas and ever cheapening renewable energy.

[erpowers]

21. Do Regulations Make Coal More Expensive?

I am not a fan of coal; I am just asking because one of the hosts on NPR said regulations did play a role in making natural gas cheaper. Now, I realize there was a pro-coal guy who was going to be interviewed on NPR and he said that to make coal cheap enough to compete with natural gas the EPA and the Energy Department had to be shut down and just about all regulations, if not all regulations, had to be removed. I do not want to get rid of all or most environmental regulations, but have regulations made coal more expensive than natural gas, or is natural gas just naturally cheaper than coal? In addition, if you can explain it, what, aside from regulations, makes natural gas so cheap? Is it easier to get out of the ground? Is it cheap because there is a large amount of natural gas in the ground?

[NurseJackie]

6. Bring back switchboard operators!!

[revmclaren]

8. And the horse and buggy...

And don't forget biplanes. So much cheaper and easier to maintain than stealth fighters.

[rpannier]

11. I liked switchboard operators

At least they were real people
As for coal... not so much

[Kolesar]

9. So his followers can stay at home eating opiods

Instead of getting one of those great coal mining jobs.
Send the wife to work to support "the family" in perpetuity.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. If natural gas becomes scarce in the future, coal might rebound.

Or nuclear power.

I don't know if wind/sun is mature enough to power the country.

[JI7]

19. even then there is the issue of automation

[IronLionZion]

4. Is Trump going to bail them out or blame Obama?

Or blame immigrants or something nonsensical?

Blame anything except the free market forces and fracking that cause natural gas to be cheaper and easier to get.

Blame socialism and college educated snowflakes or literally anything else.

[SpankMe]

7. I feel bad for people who are losing their jobs over this

...as well as losing a large part of their identities as hearty coal workers whose profession has spanned generations of their family. For most of us, our professions help define us.

But...in a modern society like ours, things generally move in directions of better, cheaper, cleaner and more efficient. They have to or we wither and die.

We're not crying to bring back the Model-T now that we have Priuses and Teslas. We're not whining to bring back dirigibles, stage coaches and bi-planes now that we have modern jet airliners. We're not trying to bring back the jobs of telephone operators now that we have the Internet and cell phones. Things just move forward. It's almost inevitable.

Well, now it's coal's turn to sit back and let other forms of energy take over. Energy that is cleaner, cheaper and - most importantly - derived from renewable resources. As msanthrope said above, coal jobs aren't coming back. Oh, Trump may bring back a few by brute force. But those will be token coal jobs that'll disappear when Trump leaves office and the pressure is off.

It's been 4 paragraphs and I haven't said it yet: Fuck Donald Trump

[Cryptoad]

10. King Coal may not be Dead but,,,,

its in its dying quivers.......

[yellowcanine]

17. What's left of King Coal is operating in places like Montana, not Ohio.

And many of those laid off coal miners are going to lose their health care also. Trump 1, Coal miners 0.

[yardwork]

12. How's that MAGA thing working for you, southern Ohio?

[riversedge]

13. Trump breaks his Promise. Good

[HAB911]

14. Trump should EO them to stay open

for god's sake

[yellowcanine]

16. Coal jobs in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia are finished.

Natural gas is the way electricity is going to be produced in those areas. The bulk of any remaining demand for coal is going to come from much more efficient open pit mines in the West. To top off the situation, many laid off coal miners are going to lose their health care. This is the great Trump swindle.

[Coventina]

18. They will only be closed for a few days....to get all Trumpified...new gold paint and fixtures.

Then! HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!!!!

COAL IS BACK, BABY!!!!!

[erpowers]

20. But Wait the Regulations

So, I thought once Donald Trump had gotten rid of all those horrible regulations the coal industry would make a come back. Do we have to wait until the cuts to the EPA and other environmental programs have gone through? What more does this country have to do before coal jobs come roaring back?