The Department of Energy ordered Colorado coal plant to stay open for three months, one day before it was set to close. The coal plant will require tens of millions in repairs to get up and running again, and its retirement was expected to save Colorado ratepayers $79 million per year.
Coal is a dead energy source. It’s costly, inefficient, and deadly both for workers and for all species on Earth alike. For these reasons, coal has seen a rapid decline in the US, as the country shifts to significantly better power sources.
Coal peaked at around half of US electricity supply in the early 2000s, but has been dropping precipitously since around 2008. Now, coal is only 15% of US electricity supply, and that number will keep dropping.
