Free market power

AMINOR bit of national news from last week: Two coal plants will be shuttered within the next decade, officials say. NBC News reports that the Tennessee Valley Authority voted 5- 2 to shut down Kentucky’s Paradise plant in 2020 and Tennessee’s Bull Run plant in 2023. Here’s more from NBC:

“The decision came despite Republican politicians, including Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, urging to keep the plants open. The president entered the fray over the potential closure [ last] Monday, stating on Twitter that TVA needed to ‘ give serious consideration to all factors before voting to close viable power plants, like Paradise No. 3 in Kentucky.’”

Despite the president’s campaign promise to bring back coal, whatever that means, what he might be learning is the same lesson President Obama learned with Solyndra and his renewable energy gamble: The government cannot pick winners and losers in the market. Not as successfully or as often as the market can.

We’re certainly not going to shut down all coal plants overnight. That’d create a huge hole in our electric grid that neither nuclear or renewable power is prepared to fill. Still, the writing is on the ( mine) wall.

Instead of providing coal subsidies, our government should be increasing tax dollars to retrain coal miners who will lose their jobs as energy economics shift. And prepare them for different and more stable careers rather than give them empty promises that their industry will bounce back. All evidence points to the contrary.