Two Western Slope coal-fired power plants will shut down as part of a larger plan to reduce haze and improve air quality in Colorado, parties in the deal announced Thursday.
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a cooperative based in Westminster, will retire the 100-megawatt, coal-fired Nucla Station in western Montrose County by the end of 2022. The nearby New Horizon Mine, which feeds the plant with coal, will also cease operations and undergo reclamation.
Tri-State also operates three coal-fired units at Craig Station, two of which it owns in conjunction with the Yampa Project, a partnership that also includes PacifiCorp, Platte River Power Authority, Salt River Project, and Public Service Company of Colorado, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy.
By the end of 2025, Yampa Project will retire Unit 1, a 427-megawatt coal-fired plant built in 1980. Units 2 and 3 will continue to operate, but with added emissions control equipment to stay in compliance.
“Tri-State has worked tirelessly to preserve our ability to responsibly use coal to produce reliable and affordable power, which makes the decision to retire a coal-fired generating unit all the more difficult,” Tri-State CEO Mike McInnes said in a statement. “We are not immune to the challenges that face coal-based electricity across the country.”
In the end, it was more cost-effective to retire the two plants rather than retrofit them with equipment to comply with stricter emission requirements, Tri-State said.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment estimates the agreement will cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 4 million tons per year, and eliminate thousands of tons of other pollutants. Those reductions are needed to achieve compliance with state and federal clean air plans and to improve air quality in once pristine parts of the state now suffering big reductions in visibility.
“These emission reductions will help lower ozone levels that contribute to respiratory illnesses such as asthma. The reductions also will reduce haze and improve visibility in our national parks and wilderness areas,” CDPHE chief Dr. Larry Wolk said in a statement.
Wolk, however, acknowledged the plant closures will have a disproportionate impact on a part of Colorado where good-paying jobs are increasingly hard to find.
While no or minimal job losses are expected with the closure of the Craig Station Unit 1, the closures in Montrose County will hit Nucla and Naturita hard. Nucla Station, built in 1959 and rebuilt in 1987, employs 55 people. Another 28 workers are employed at the mine.
Among the industries operating in Montrose County, mining and utilities pay the second and third highest weekly wages, double or nearly double the overall average.
“This agreement fortunately gives us time to plan for the impacts of the retirements,” said Lee Boughey, a spokesman for Tri-State, which acquired the plant in 1992.
Tri-State built its last coal plant in 2007 and renewable sources now account for about a quarter of its energy portfolio, Boughey said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, WildEarth Guardians and the National Parks Conservation Association also participated in the talks around the Colorado Visibility and Regional Haze State Implementation Plan, known as SIP.
