King Coal no longer

There’s a Newfoundland connection. Just wait for it.

It’s something that startles me every time I’m in the United States: trains. Not just because there aren’t any on the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador any more, but because so very many trains in the U.S. seem to be almost fully involved in hauling shin black coal from one place to another in huge, regular lines of hopper cars.

Coal trains rolling into power plants on the edge of the Mississippi. Coal trains on an endless back and forth rotation through Nebraska, full trains heading one way, empty cars rattling back in the other direction. Coal trains shifting through the western desert at all hours.

I saw that happening in 2016, when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was claiming he was the candidate who would bring coal back — even it seemed to me like there was plenty of coal already. (Turns out, Trump hasn’t brought coal back in any meaningful way: the number of coal miners have continued to fall, there have been plenty of coal mine closures and bankruptcies, and by early 2020, coal shipments by rail in the U.S. had fallen by 17 per cent, compared to a year earlier.)

So what’s going on in a country where the president claims to be a coal supporter?

Well, business is happening. Friday, a major Arizona utility announced it is ramping down and closing a huge coal-fired generating operation by 2035. The utility plans to replace two coal units at the Springerville generating station with wind and solar power, new energy storage systems, and a continued emphasis on energy efficiency and demand-side management of power needs.

Not only will the move (along with a series of other coal plant shutdowns) take coal out of the company’s generation equation, it will mean the utility will be able to stop using large amounts of surface water and well-supplied groundwater. But not only at Springerville: shutdowns of coal units at the Navajo, San Juan and Four Corners generating stations will mean an end to coal-fired power for the utility.

The company in question? Tucson Electric Power (TEP), a subsidiary of St. John’s based Fortis Inc.

Here’s Barry Perry, president and CEO, Fortis Inc., in a release from last Friday, “The ambitious targets are significant and impactful in terms of the overall Fortis energy mix. Upon retirement of TEP’S coal-fired generation, Fortis will have a coal-free generation mix.” Think about that: coal-free — not just for TEP, but for all of Fortis’s farreaching energy empire.

TEP is taking time to shut its coal-fired plants down, in part to allow it to cut its workforce by attrition, and in part to help nearby communities deal with job losses. And it’s not just in Springerville: there are the rail workers who handle and deliver the huge shipments, and the miners who supply the mineral.

But climate concerns, water concerns and — face it — profits are changing the mix. For TEP, wind and solar (along with power storage capability for when the sun’s not shining and the wind isn’t blowing) will account for 40 per cent of the firm’s power in 2030, over 60 per cent by 2033, and over 70 per cent by 2035. That writing is on the wall.

This is, admittedly, only a small snapshot of a huge industry, and far from a complete picture of the changing role of coal in the power grids. But it makes one thing clear: economics drive business decision-making.

Presidents? They only talk a good game.