https://www.powermag.com/report-utilities-plan-to-keep-coal-plants-running/
"A report from a major environmental group (Sierra Club) said that coal-fired power generation will continue to play a large role in U.S. electricity production for at least another 10 years.
The Sierra Club report published Jan. 25, based on a review of integrated resource plans (IRPs) from the 50 U.S. utilities most invested in coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants, said those utilities plan to retire about 25% of their coal capacity over the next decade.
The group’s analysis said those companies, which it said account for 43% of U.S. electricity output, do plan to add solar and wind power capacity, with the production from renewables amounting to less than 20% of their current coal- and gas-fired generation.
... Emily Fisher, senior vice president of clean energy at Edison Electric Institute, the group which represents U.S. investor-owned utilities, said the group’s members are working to decarbonize but there are many facets to the process. “The goals we have are a reflection of our current understanding of technology and economics,” said Fisher ...
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), released Jan. 12, forecasts that generation from coal-fired power plants will jump 14% this year from 2020 levels, after a steep 20% drop last year from 2019.
... The EIA in the STEO said the increase in coal-fired output, and the decline in gas-fired generation, primarily will be due to higher prices for natural gas this year.
Groups that support thermal power generation have said a goal to decarbonize the power sector over the next 15 years threatens the availability of electricity and could increase energy costs.
The Institute for Energy Research, a group that advocates for deregulation of utilities and free-market policies, in a commentary about the new president’s executive orders issued last week, said, “the administration’s desire for extensive climate regulations will drive up the cost of energy, but higher energy costs disproportionately harm poor and minority groups.
This conflicts with the repeated references to racial justice and inequality throughout the executive orders.”
The group added, “The framework spelled out in these executive orders seeks an end to affordable energy supplies. "
A report in the December 2020 issue of the journal Science said that 73% of current, operable U.S. fossil fuel-fired generation capacity would reach the end of its expected, typical life span by 2035.
About 96% of the plants operating today would reach the end of their typical lifecycle by 2050, but it would take until 2066 for 100% of today’s fossil fuel-fired units to reach their endpoint.
... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said the power generation sector contributes about 27% of the nation’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making it the second-largest GHG source behind transportation."