Energy Dept. Orders Colorado to Revive Dead Coal Plant – A Costly Blast from the Past!

TL;DR: In a move that smells like desperation and old coal dust, the US Energy Department ordered Colorado to reopen a "dead" coal plant. This is costing ratepayers millions for a plant nobody even needs.\n\nMeta: The US Energy Department ordered Colorado to reopen the Craig Power Plant, a retired coal facility, despite claims of unreliability and millions in costs to ratepayers.\n\nAlright, alright, settle down now! Just when you thought coal was dead and buried, enjoying its retirement in the history books, the US Energy Department decides to play necromancer! They just ordered Colorado to reopen the Craig Power Plant, a facility that was literally set to close its doors for good. Now, this ain't just a blast from the past; it's a costly, inefficient, and frankly, ludicrous demand that's gonna hit Colorado ratepayers right in the wallet. It’s like demanding a horse-drawn carriage for your commute when you’ve got a perfectly good EV sitting in the driveway. Come on!\n\n### A Ghost from the Past\n\nCoal, bless its sooty heart, is a dying energy source. It’s expensive, it’s dirty, and it’s been rapidly declining in the US, now making up a mere 15% of electricity supply. New capacity? Almost all solar and wind. So, to order a coal plant to stay open for three months, a plant that needs tens of millions in repairs just to get it sputtering back to life? That's not just bad policy; that's comedy!\n\nThe plant's operator, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, even said Craig Unit 1 isn't needed for "reliability or resource adequacy." The experts are saying, "Nah, we good." But the Energy Department, under a former oil CEO, decided to pull this stunt anyway, citing vague "reliability" concerns. Yeah, right. More like "reliability of making the taxpayer pay through the nose." An analysis showed keeping Craig open would cost $79 million per year. That's money that could be building new clean energy or, you know, not increasing electricity prices during an affordability crisis.\n\n### Governor Polis Throws Shade\n\nColorado's Governor, Jared Polis, didn't mince words. He called the order "ludicrous" and pointed out the sheer waste of it all: "This order will pass tens of millions in costs to Colorado ratepayers, in order to keep a coal plant open that is broken and not needed... Ludicrously, the coal plant isn’t even operational right now, meaning repairs — to the tune of millions of dollars — just to get it running, all on the backs of rural Colorado ratepayers!" He’s not wrong. It's like paying to fix a broken VCR when you've got Netflix.\n\nAnd to top it all off, this move actively works against Colorado’s efforts to meet federal EPA clean air regulations. So, it's not just expensive and unnecessary; it's counterproductive to public health and environmental goals. Environmental group Earthjustice has already vowed to fight this "illegal order." It seems some folks just love doing the same illegal things over and over again, hoping for a different result.\n\n### What’s Next\n\nThis legal showdown will be critical in challenging what appears to be politically motivated attempts to prop up a failing fossil fuel industry at the expense of taxpayers and the environment. The outcome will likely determine if states have the autonomy to move towards cleaner energy or if they can be strong-armed into wasting resources on outdated, polluting power sources. We need to watch this closely, because if they can do it to Colorado, they can do it anywhere. And that, my friends, ain't funny.\n\nSo, next time you hear someone talking about "clean coal," just remember this story. Sometimes, dead is just dead. And expensive. Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta go plug in my phone. Can't rely on ghost power! Yeah!\n\n