Bill To Prop Up Coal Power Too Absurd Even For WV Legislature, But Customers Still Get To Pay More
In response to pressure from utilities and consumer advocates, West Virginia lawmakers have watered down a bill originally designed to make it difficult — if not impossible — for utilities to shut down the state’s struggling coal plants. The bill would have forced the state’s coal plants to continue to “burn” coal at 2019 rates and gave three different state agencies — including one created solely for the purpose of promoting the state’s extraction industry — veto power over future closures.
But after pushback from utilities, consumer advocacy groups, and other lawmakers, who pointed out that West Virginians would pay more on their utility bills as a result, the proposed law was gutted. Now, as it moves to another committee, it’s not clear if the legislation does much of anything at all. Even so, the week-long negotiations over the details of the bill illustrate the tough dilemma facing lawmakers, increasingly desperate to come up with new ways to prop up the dying coal industry. Initially eager to establish hard requirements, lawmakers softened the bill’s language after hauling in industry executives — twice — to explain the deep consequences of the proposed legislation on their West Virginian customers.
And even in its hollowed out form, the bill could hurt West Virginians on their electricity bills, according to Sammy Gray, a FirstEnergy executive. He warned that if the company uses more coal, as the bill encourages, instead of cheaper alternatives it would pass the extra expense on to its customers. More than 90% of the electricity produced in West Virginia comes from coal — but that’s not necessarily true of the electricity consumed in the state. That’s because all of this power goes into a larger regional energy grid, where it’s bought and sold. Local utilities generally purchase the cheapest energy available. SB 542, as originally designed, would curtail that option — forcing utilities to keep burning coal even when there’s cheaper alternatives.
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Lawmakers have almost annually for several years pushed one version or another of a “coal bill” aimed at helping the state’s mining industry as it struggled against stiff competition from natural gas and renewables, and the mining out of some of the state’s best coal reserves. Those measures have been sprinkled with proposals to weaken environmental restrictions and even lessen mine safety enforcement in the name of coal production. Despite years of wrangling over the issue, however, lawmakers’ latest maneuver shocked advocates. “It’s impossible to overstate how bad this bill is for West Virginia,” said Karan Ireland, a former Charleston city councilwoman who now works for the Sierra Club, speaking about the introduced version of the bill on Friday.
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https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2021/03/11/west-virginia-lawmakers-remain-desperate-to-prop-up-the-dying-coal-industry-residents-are-paying-the-cost-with-higher-electric-bills/
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