A report in the Tribune earlier this week indicated that employment in coal dropped again in 2018. Maybe that reflects a new normal level of employment, but at any rate its not good news for those who were banking on a return of coal for various reasons. Among those this is not good news for is the State, which has been funding education on the coal severance tax for a very long time. Mine employment, of course, isn't directly tied to that tax, but the tax reflects production as does employment in the mines.
Also, the same week I ran an item about a bill in the legislature to require coal companies to try to sell coal fired power plants before closing them, a unit at just such a plant in Kemmerer in fact shut down. This would reduce the plants capacity by a third, at least in the context of it being a three unit plant.
When I ran the item on the bill I had to admit I didn't know how many coal burning power plants the state had and I wasn't aware of this one. I am now, of course, but only because of that news. The reason given for the shut down was that the plant was doing it as it couldn't comply with environmental regulations and it wasn't worth the cost to upgrade the unit. While that's undoubtedly true, that ties back in with long term trends we've been noting on coal having reached a point where it now no longer has a big cost advantage over other power generating means. Of course, it could be noted that regulation is what caused this to come about, but be that as it may, that regulation is there and is, at least presently, part of the cost of doing business.
Oddly enough, at the same time, a proposal for a solar electrical generation facility near Kemmerer has been made. There's no connection between the two, but it has a weird element of synchronicity to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment