As a former FirstEnergy employee, I can tell you that this is definitely NOT good. Search at www.cleveland.com (the Cleveland Plain Dealer) and you will see that they're closing the Eastlake plant (Eastlake, OH), the Lakeshore plant (Cleveland, OH), the Ashtabula plant (Ashtabula, OH), and part of the Bay Shore plant in Toledo, OH. That will create a significant deficit of power generation along Lake Erie. Absent replacement generation in that area, this will cause problems.
I'm going to speculate here that Ohio just went Republican in a big way because of this.
Just a side note, TVA, a federal agency, is doing the same sort of thing. They're idling coal-fired generators in favor of temporarily-cheap natural gas, nuclear, and the intermittent wind resource. It's a political decision, not an economic decision. Thanks, Obama, you worthless communist POS wannabe dictator moron.
The purpose of posting the article about 6 coal plants (4 plants in OH, 1 in MD, and 1 in PA according to the article) closing was to add to the discussion about those 3 in WVa in the article. (Trying to keep a running tab on this)
Ohio has a republican governor - Kasich
I also found this article about AEP coal plants.
EPA Regulation Closes 5 Coal Plants
http://lonelyconservative.com/2011/06/epa-regulation-closes-5-coal-plants/
The latest proposed regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will force the closing of five American Electric Power (AEP) coal-fired power plants – THAT’S FIVE POWER PLANTS. The only option to closing is spending at least $8 BILLION renovating the plants to meet the newest guidelines. The legislation that Obama cannot get through Congress, is instead, being foisted on us through EPA regulations.