Climate Vandal Orders Colorado To Keep Using Old, Broken Coal Plant
The governor says it will only cost residents more money.
Trump's "ready, fire, aim" administration has ordered an aging coal-fired power plant in Colorado to stay open on Tuesday, a day before it was set to be retired. Because he wants all you hippie climate change worrywarts to know who's in charge here! Via CNN:
The order from Energy Secretary Chris Wright will keep the nearly 50-year-old Craig Generating Station Unit 1 in northwest Colorado operating until the end of March, with an option to extend it further.
It’s the Department of Energy’s sixth such move this year; Wright has also ordered two coal plants in Indiana, one in Michigan and one in Washington state to stay open past their retirement dates, as well as a Pennsylvania power plant that runs on oil.
“Keeping this coal plant online will ensure Americans maintain an affordable, reliable, and secure supply of electricity,” Wright said in a statement.
Colorado’s governor and its top energy official pushed back on Wright’s claim that keeping Craig open would boost affordability, saying it would only raise electricity prices.
In a statement, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said the order would pass “tens of millions in costs to Colorado ratepayers, in order to keep a coal plant open that is broken and not needed.”
According to Polis’ statement, Craig 1 “isn’t even operational right now” and would require repairs costing millions of dollars to get it up and running before it could even produce power. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, the power supply co-op that owns Craig 1, said the unit has been offline since a critical part broke on December 19.