Coal

The impending closure the end of next year of one of the nation’s largest coal-fired electric generation plants on the Navajo Nation Reservation in Arizona, a victim of cheaper natural gas and renewables, appeared to be the tribe’s only option once again Friday after two private equity investment firms announced they were dropping plans to purchase the 2,250 MW power plant.

FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. late Wednesday announced plans to shutter four fossil fuel power plants, including Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired facility, by 2022.

The annual cost to support coal and nuclear plants as proposed by the Trump administration could climb as high as $35 billion, according to a report from The Brattle Group.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects natural gas-fired electricity generation to near record highs this summer as prices remain low and outcompete other resources such as coal, which is again forecast to play a lesser role in the nation’s power stack from June through August.

In a break with precedent, FERC Chief of Staff Anthony Pugliese took to the airwaves July 8 to talk politics and promote the Trump administration’s positions on controversial energy policies.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle appeared to breathe a collective sigh of relief following Scott Pruitt’s resignation as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but new battle lines were beginning to form around Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist who is taking the reins on an interim basis beginning Monday.

Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Rick Perry said the Trump administration does not currently have an estimate over how much a controversial proposal to extend a lifeline to struggling coal and nuclear power producers would ultimately cost.

Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry helped get the World Gas Conference (WGC) off to a rousing start on Tuesday, lauding technological innovation in the energy sector that would have been unheard of 30 years ago, the last time the conference was held in the United States.

None of the five commissioners appointed to FERC believe the kind of emergency exists that would warrant a federal directive typically reserved for wartime and severe grid impairments to bail out faltering coal and nuclear plants. The commissioners’ views emerged during an oversight hearing Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.