You are here: Home » Subject » Colstrip
Colstrip
More News and Commentary
IEEFA
Billings Gazette: Construction of what’s expected to be Montana’s largest wind farm will begin in 2021 just beyond the shadow the coal-fired Colstrip Power Plant. NextEra Energy Resources will plug into the grid at Colstrip substation, to target markets in the Pacific Northwest. Its Clearwater Wind project, with a 750-megawatts capacity, will be three times […]
IEEFA
E&E News: High operating and capital costs could make carbon capture, utilization and storage “not financially attractive” at a large coal plant visited by Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette this month, according to a Department of Energy analysis recently made public. According to the report, which was conducted by DOE and Leonardo Technologies Inc., capturing and […]
Press Release, Karl Cates and Seth Feaster
Statewide risk as fast-moving transition sweeps across power-generation industry
March 2, 2020 (IEEFA) — Arizona utility companies that are closing coal-fired power plants must reinvest aggressively in regional coalfield communities in order to avoid local economic disarray that could affect the state’s overall financial health, concludes a report published today by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. The report—The Case (and the […]
Seth Feaster and Clark Williams-Derry
Industry continues to struggle against increasingly competitive market forces
Some energy pundits have spoken in recent times of an impending U.S. coal renaissance. The Heritage Foundation trumpeted coal’s “Colossal Comeback” in 2017, and a Wall Street Journal reporter in 2018 wrote of its global “resilience.” Industry executives three years ago credited the newly-elected Trump administration with paving the way for fresh investments in new […]
IEEFA
Associated Press: One of the largest coal-fired power plants in the western U.S. will close two of its four units by Saturday as the Montana facility edges toward an eventual total shutdown. Colstrip Units 1 and 2 – built in the 1970s when massive strip mines were being developed across Montana and Wyoming – will […]
IEEFA
Billings Gazette: NorthWestern Energy plans to increase its share in Colstrip Unit 4 by buying out another power plant owner who recently revealed the coal-fired unit needs $20 million in repairs. Montana’s largest monopoly utility said Tuesday that it will buy out Puget Sound Energy for $1. The price is identical to what NorthWestern pitched […]
IEEFA
Billings Gazette: Colstrip Power Plant will continue receiving coal from Rosebud Mine under a six-year contract signed by all but one of the plant’s owners this wee The contract, five years in the making, was signed with just weeks left on the coal arrangement between the mine and the power plant. The terms assure the […]
IEEFA
Billings Gazette: A Colstrip Power Plant owner has accelerated its exit plans by nearly a decade and has agreed to compensate the community. Avista Corp. agreed to be financially ready to exit both Units 3 and 4 by 2025. Based in Spokane, Washington, Avista had previously given itself until 2034 to be financially ready for […]
IEEFA
Montana Free Press: A group of environmental groups filed a lawsuit in federal court in Billings Monday challenging the proposed expansion of the Rosebud Coal Mine, which supplies coal to the Colstrip power plant. In June, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement approved the expansion, which will allow […]
Seth Feaster
Financial distress among mining companies could add momentum to electricity-generation transition
The chaotic collapse of Blackjewel and the unexpected closure of its mines in both the Powder River Basin and Appalachia, as well as a spate of other recent coal-mining bankruptcies, should serve as a wake-up call for utilities dependent on coal-fired generation. Coal companies serving the electricity supply sector are barely treading water while falling […]
IEEFA report: The case for utility-company reinvestment in Arizona’s coalfield communities
Statewide risk as fast-moving transition sweeps across power-generation industryMarch 2, 2020 (IEEFA) — Arizona utility companies that are closing coal-fired power plants must reinvest aggressively in regional coalfield communities in order to avoid local economic disarray that could affect the state’s overall financial health, concludes a report published today by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. The report—The Case (and the […]