Say goodbye to another Texas coal-fired power plant

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle 7/3/2019

Gibbons Creek Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant about 20 miles from Bryan, was already in mothball status, putting the state's grid operator on notice earlier this year that it wouldn't be running this summer. Now it's closing for good.

The state's grid manager the Electric Reliability Council of Texas received notice from the City of Garland that the 470-megawatt plant would be retired permanently on Oct. 23. The Texas Municipal Power Agency, a group comprising the cities of Bryan, Garland, Denton and Greenville, owns the plant.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Good-bye-to-another-Texas-coal-fired-power-plant-14068060.php

[thackney]

...TMPA owns Gibbons Creek lignite mine that was the original source of fuel for the power plant. Lignite is a low grade form of coal that gradually became less competitive against higher grade sub-bituminous coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. The mine was operational from 1982 to 1996. In 1996 the mine was closed and TMPA began importing all of its coal from Wyoming....

http://www.texasmpa.org/environment.aspx

[IsailedawayfromFR]

To shut down coal plants was not initially an Obama thing or even just an environmental thing.  It was a joint effort by environmental groups in partnership with provocateur Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake who was attempting to stop coal so the public and industry would gravitate toward natural gas which his company exploited.

[Joe Wooten]

To shut down coal plants was not initially an Obama thing or even just an environmental thing.  It was a joint effort by environmental groups in partnership with provocateur Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake who was attempting to stop coal so the public and industry would gravitate toward natural gas which his company exploited.

I was very amused when I heard this several years ago because the coal industry did the same team up with the enviroweenies to sucker punch the nuke plants.

Karma is a real bitch.....

[kidd]

I am concerned that, with coal plants and nuke plants closing, that the United States is setting itself up for a serious fuel supply issue. With an over-dependence on natural gas, there is the risk of an energy crisis should anything interfere with our ability to frac (such as too many democrats get elected to Congress and enact uninformed anti-fracking laws)

[Joe Wooten]

I am concerned that, with coal plants and nuke plants closing, that the United States is setting itself up for a serious fuel supply issue. With an over-dependence on natural gas, there is the risk of an energy crisis should anything interfere with our ability to frac (such as too many democrats get elected to Congress and enact uninformed anti-fracking laws)

Agreed!
Up until 1970 Texas was almost 100% natural gas generation. There was one lignite plant running at Sandow but most of that output went to the Alcoa aluminum plant nearby. Texas Utilities had bought up all the good lignite in the late 1940's, They knew cheap natural gas was not going to last forever, so they panned to start building lignite plants in the 1960's.

To keep costs down in the meantime, they negotiated a 20 year gas contract that paid over triple the going rate in 1960. Everyone thought they were nuts until gas prices exploded in the late1970's. Every gas fired plant built in the 1960's was also designed to be easily converted to burning coal. They figured that lignite would tide the state over until nuclear fusion power plants came around. Remember even as far back as the 1950's controlled fusion power was "just around the corner".

It did not work out that way but at least there were utility executives thinking 20 to 30 years down the road, instead of looking only to the next quarter.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I am concerned that, with coal plants and nuke plants closing, that the United States is setting itself up for a serious fuel supply issue. With an over-dependence on natural gas, there is the risk of an energy crisis should anything interfere with our ability to frac (such as too many democrats get elected to Congress and enact uninformed anti-fracking laws)

A valid concern.

If the federal government takes that step, look at a state like Texas simply ignoring what the feds say as it continues to supply its citizens with cheap, affordable power and fuel.

Texans especially have long memories of Jimmy Carter days of forcing the state to subsidize the Northerners with cheap natural gas while its own citizens had to pay several times the price per mcf.

Maybe the initial step toward taking back the sovereignty stated in the Constitution.

[Fishrrman]

Eventually, coal will "come back".

When the gas runs out...
When the nuke plants have all closed...
When the wind farms go kaput...
When solar is shown to be a fraud...

... Coal will still be there, almost limitless in its quantity.

Just mine it, haul it, pile it up, and burn it.