Tri-State to close Escalante coal plant (Good New Mexico jobs gone...)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | January 9, 2020 | Kevin Robinson-Avila

[CedarDave]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association announced Thursday that it will shut down its 253 megawatt coal-fired generating station near Grants by the end of 2020 as part of the wholesale electric supplier’s efforts to transition to a clean energy grid over the next decade.

The closure will eliminate 107 jobs at the plant, and potentially scores more at a nearby coal mine that supplies fuel for the generating station.

Escalante was built to operate through 2045, but Tri-State is closing it 25 years early as part of a broad plan to eliminate all of the association’s coal-fired generation in New Mexico and Colorado to meet new regulations in both states that mandate a transition to a carbon-free grid.

Tri-State is a wholesale association that sells electricity to 43 distribution cooperatives in four states, including 11 in New Mexico.

The association informed employees at Escalante and Craig of the shutdown plans Wednesday morning.

“We understand it’s a shock for our employees,” said Tri-State CEO Duane Highley in a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon. “We will work with them and the local communities where they work to help minimize the negative impacts.”

[CedarDave]

“We understand it’s a shock for our employees,” said Tri-State CEO Duane Highley

Yeah, 107 jobs at the plant plus at the coal mine plus at the railroad that hauls coal from mine to plant.

More good paying jobs sacrificed on the alter of faux global climate change.

[CedarDave]

NM list PING!

I may not PING for all New Mexico articles. To see New Mexico articles by topic click here: New Mexico Topics

To see NM articles by keyword, click here: New Mexico Keyword

To see the NM Message Page, click here: New Mexico Messages

(The NM list is available on my FR homepage for FR member use; its use in the News Forum should not be for trivial or inconsequential posts. Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
(For ABQ Journal articles requiring a subscription, scroll down to the bottom of the page to view the article for free after answering a question or watching a short video commercial.)

[Jim Robinson]

They can all learn to code. /s

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Birds, bats, and desert tortoises most affected.

[kaktuskid]

Many of those employees are Native Americans

[CedarDave]

Navajo Code Talkers are no longer needed, LOL!

Seriously, the plant is adjacent to Navajo land and like those that worked at the recently closed coal plant at Page Arizona, most workers are highly trained Native Americans and there are not many similar jobs available as coal plants are closing. Here in New Mexico there are two coal plants in the Four Corners area, one operated by Public Service Co. of NM and the other by a power company in AZ. Locals are hoping to save PNM’s plant by having new technology to capture carbon, but the enviros are having none of it - they want it gone and demolished to be replaced by more bird killing windmills. And our electric bills will skyrocket as wind and solar cannot replace generation by efficient fossil fuel plants, especially natural gas.

Just GRRR...

[reintarnation]

Electricity being fungible, maybe the feds could buy the output from these plants and sell it on the grid... The loss of jobs in the four corners region is devastating.

[Renkluaf]

Couldn’t get to article (paywall) but they’re obviously taking a huge write-off to do this. Renewables much more expensive form of power. Makes no sense.

[Bonemaker]

Unfortunately, that appears to be w solid Trump area.

[CedarDave]

Couldn’t get to article (paywall) but they’re obviously taking a huge write-off to do this. Renewables much more expensive form of power. Makes no sense.

Try again; I have a subscription but when I logout, I find I can get in by answering a couple of their inane questions.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Good...they can now spend 10 times more money and hire 10 times more workers to get 10 times less power.

Sounds like a win-win-win all the way around. Except for the poor schlubs paying for that expensive “carbon neutral” or “green” or “eco” power.

All to appease the Global Warming Gods and their hoax.

Big winter storm descending on North Idaho here. Thank God our Avista utility is still burning fossil fuels to keep our lights on. Unfortunately, they’ve also made a similar stupid commitment to getting rid of our low-cost, reliable power sources in the next 20 years.

This is not going to end well for the nation.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yep, SloJoe is going to retrain them from “Shoveling coal into the furnace” to coding.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Birds, bats, and desert tortoises won’t mind getting covered by a hundred square miles of solar panels. They need the shade.

[wjcsux]

Unfortunately, the utility companies have been beaten down by the Eco-facists. I have heard that some of the other coal fired plants in the Four-corners area have been targeted for closure as well.

[texas booster]

When I drive through the area, I wonder what jobs are available if not for the power plant and the mines?

It's Grants, NM. Not NYC ...

[Carriage Hill]

Once a coal-fired plant is decommissioned, it can’t be brought back.

During a coal-fired plant’s decommissioning process, the electric-generating equipment — such as precipitators, boilers, turbines, and generators — are shut down and operating permits are terminated. Unused coal and materials associated with both the generation process and the buildings and structures are removed.

The party’s over.

[Does so]

Didn’t Slick Willie put the U.S. best coal field into a National Monument there?

[SpaceBar]

Hugo Lujan-Grisholm.

[CedarDave]

Unfortunately, that appears to be w solid Trump area.

The communities mostly are, but on the south side of the San Juan River and west to the AZ is all Navajo Reservation. In addition to the lost of coal jobs, natural gas production is down as there is a glut as it is co-produced with the oil in the Permian Basin fields and the price is very low.

[CedarDave]

Didn’t Slick Willie put the U.S. best coal field into a National Monument there?

Escalante National Monument is in Utah, and was established during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency. In September of 1996, President Clinton designated Grand Staircase as a huge national monument, which at 1.9 million acres dominates any map of Southern Utah.

The combined monument is known as The Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument (GSENM). Originally 1,880,461 acres of protected land in southern Utah in 1996, the monument's size was later reduced by a succeeding presidential proclamation in 2017 (President Trump). The land is among the most remote in the country; it was the last to be mapped in the contiguous United States