Utah's largest electric utility, Rocky Mountain Power, announces it will close its large coal-fired power plants in Utah in less than 10 years and replace them with smaller nuclear plants.
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That end comes years before the original closure dates for the Huntington and Hunter plants. The other two utility-scale coal plants still operating in Utah – the Intermountain Power Plant near Delta and the Bonanza Power Plant near Vernal – are also expected to stop burning coal before 2030. Gregory Todd, director of the Utah Office of Energy Development, said the state will continue to pursue standards that keep energy affordable and reliable in the state. “We’re glad RMP recognizes those standards as well, and it’s apparent in the newest iteration of its IRP,” said Todd.
plan to build a 500-megawatt plant that combines nuclear energy with molten salt storage. That combination allows faster dispatching of power to compensate for the ebbs and flows of wind and solar. Tuddenham also said the plants will also have to store their nuclear waste since the federal government has yet to devise a solution to store the waste, which is unsafe for thousands of years. “They’re going to have this waste in their backyard in a way that they’ve never had before. The storage is going to be for a long-term period, if not forever.”
Utah legislators allocated $2 million to help with that fight. Rocky Mountain spokesman Dave Eskelsen says the company will still support a state lawsuit on the issue, but it believes it has a plan to meet EPA’s requirements. For years, the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign has targeted the two Utah power plants, pushing for their early retirement. The group welcomed Friday’s announcement, but voiced some doubts that RMP’s plan would accomplish much by way of emission reduction in the near term.
Coal transportation and rail operations along US-6 in Helper on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022. Changes will be coming to Utah's coal country with a Rocky Mountain Power decision to end coal-fired plant production by 2032.
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