Power producers that say they will shutter coal-fired units as a result of the new rule include Atlanta-based Southern Co. In addition to Pennsylvania, states with power plants that plan to stop using coal by 2028 are Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, the Sierra Club data shows. They generate enough power for perhaps 1.5 million homes, according to industry averages for coal plants of their size.
The plants opened more than 50 years ago and together employ about 320 full-time workers and 170 contractors. 31, 2028, according to regulatory notices obtained separately by The Associated Press. Those that intend to close include two of Pennsylvania's largest coal-fired power plants, Keystone and Conemaugh outside Pittsburgh, which said they will stop using coal and retire all of their generating units by Dec. It's expected to cost plant operators, collectively, nearly $200 million per year to implement. The rule will reduce the discharge of pollutants into the nation’s waterways by about 386 million pounds annually, according to EPA estimates. “And them choosing to retire by 2028 probably reflects the reality that a lot of the subsidies they have been getting in terms of being able to dump their wastewater into the commons, they are not going to be able to do that in the future."
“The free ride these plants have been getting is ending in a lot of ways,” said Zack Fabish, a Sierra Club lawyer. Twenty-one of the plants intend to shut down, and five indicated they may switch to natural gas, the environmental group said. The national impact of the wastewater rule is still coming into focus, but at least 26 plants in 14 states said they will stop burning coal, according to the Sierra Club, which has been tracking state regulatory filings. Those plants had an October deadline to tell their state regulators how they planned to comply, with options that included upgrading their pollution-control equipment or retiring their coal-fired generating units by 2028.