Trump administration orders coal-burning power plant in Craig to stay open

The Trump administration, in its ongoing push to boost fossil fuels, issued an emergency order Tuesday to keep an aging coal-fired power plant in Craig operating even though it is broken, out of operation and was scheduled to be retired this week.

The move puts Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association in a bind as it tries to figure out how to comply with the order after years of planning to shutter the old Unit 1 plant — and after a Dec. 19 malfunction caused an outage at the unit that will be expensive to repair.

“Tri-State has a policy of 100% compliance, and we will work with Unit 1 co-owners, and federal and state governments to determine the most cost-effective path to that end,” Duane Highley, Tri-State CEO, said in a news release Wednesday. “We are continuing to review the order to determine what this means for Craig Station employees and operations, and the financial impacts. As a not-for-profit cooperative, our membership will bear the costs of compliance with this order unless we can identify a method to share costs with those in the region. There is not a clear path for doing so, but we will continue to evaluate our options.”

The order, which was issued Tuesday night by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, was criticized by Gov. Jared Polis, who said it will cost utility ratepayers more money because the plant needs millions of dollars in repairs to be brought back online.

Colorado does not have an emergency need for electricity, the governor said in an emailed statement.

Environmentalists said reopening the old plant would harm public health as it pumps climate-changing carbon emissions into the air and goes against Colorado’s plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2025.

“This order will pass tens of millions in costs to Colorado rate payers, in order to keep a coal plant open that is broken and not needed. Ludicrously, the coal plant isn’t even operational right now, meaning repairs — to the tune of millions of dollars — just to get it running, all on the backs of rural Colorado ratepayers! Going backwards is an attempt to force local communities to foot the bill to extend plant operations, and will cost energy consumers more,” Polis’s statement said. “Today’s action flies in the face of this careful planning, is inconsistent with market forces, and will hurt Coloradans.”

The emergency order will keep Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association’s Unit 1 at the Craig Station in Moffat County open for at least another 90 days. Tri-State has until Jan. 20 to explain to the energy department how it plans to get Unit 1 running and to provide an update on environmental and operational impacts, according to the order. Wright could also renew the order.

Tri-State, which co-owns the Craig Power Station with several other utilities, has planned to close its Craig Unit 1 since 2016 for economic reasons and to comply with federal and state emissions-reduction requirements. The company has based its operational and maintenance decisions on that plan and has adequate resources to maintain power reliability, the Westminster-based company’s news release stated.

Unit 1, which opened in 1980, stopped operating on Dec. 19 when a valve failed and caused an outage, the company’s news release said. Now Tri-State and the other co-owners will need to repair the valve.

As a result of the order, retaining Unit 1 will require additional financial investments in operations, repairs, maintenance and, potentially, fuel supply. All those factors will increase costs, the company’s news release stated. Tri-State is continuing to review the order to determine how best to comply while limiting the costs to its members, and the impacts to its employees and operations, it said.

Tri-State is planning to close two other coal-fired units at the Craig Station in 2028.

President Donald Trump’s agenda is to increase the nation’s use of fossil fuels, and since he took office in January, he has set about trying to save the dying coal industry through executive orders, large sales of coal from public lands, regulatory relief and offers of hundreds of millions of dollars to restore coal plants.

Colorado is just one of five states in which Wright, who is from Colorado and the founder of an oil-and-gas fracking company, has ordered coal plants to stay open. On Dec. 23, he issued orders to keep open two coal-burning power plants in Indiana.

Environmental groups are suing the Trump administration over its use of the Federal Power Act, arguing the president is abusing his power because there is no national emergency in supplying electricity.

On Wednesday, Colorado Energy Office executive director Will Toor said the state does not have an electricity shortage that would warrant invoking the Federal Power Act to keep Craig Unit 1 open.

In a statement, Toor said the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit with international regulatory authority that monitors the power grid, has found no short-term or long-term reliability risks in the Rocky Mountain region. Craig Unit 1’s closure follows a careful planning process that determined replacing or repairing the aging coal-burning plant would cost more than investing in newer, more renewable forms of electricity, he said.

“These orders will take money out of the pockets of Colorado ratepayers, and especially harm rural communities across the West who could be forced to absorb the unnecessary excess costs required to keep this plant operational,” Toor’s statement said.

But in his order, Wright wrote that he intends to keep Craig open because the electric reliability corporation has reported that the Rocky Mountain region has more variability in its electrical grid than other regions because of a large share of “wind and hydro in its portfolio.”

Wright cited a Western Electricity Coordinating Council assessment that said Colorado’s demand for power is expected to grow by 8.5% to 36 gigawatts from 33 gigawatts by 2034 and that shuttering coal plants will make it hard for the state to meet that demand.

“As described above, the emergency conditions resulting from increasing demand and shortage from accelerated retirement of generation facilities will continue in the near term and are also likely to continue in subsequent years,” the order stated. “This could lead to the loss of power to homes and businesses in the areas that may be affected by curtailments or power outages, presenting a risk to public health and safety.”

Still, Colorado officials and environmentalists said the energy secretary’s assessment is incorrect.

“The Trump administration is engaging in Soviet-style central planning, driven by ideology rather than the realities of the electric grid, that will drive dirtier air and higher electric rates across our state. These orders are unlawful and will not improve energy security in Colorado or the region,” Toor wrote.