Electric utilities say coal is on the way out, whatever Trump says
Apr. 5, 2017 6:26 PM ET|About: American Electric Power Com... (AEP)|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor
Pres. Trump can try to end "the war on coal" all it wants, but "it cannot halt the march of time," says Reuters' John Kemp, who says that the administration's four or eight-year time span is too short to have much impact on capacity planning for coal-fired power plants.
Executives at the largest U.S. electric utilities say Trump’s announcement and the eventual fate of Clean Power Plan regulations make little difference, and they still plan to retire coal plants and have no interest in building new ones.
“In terms of how we’ve been transitioning our fleet and transmission, it probably won’t have a big impact,” says John McManus, a VP at American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP), where 47% of its electricity is coal-fired vs. 71% in 2005.
Over the next three years, AEP also plans to invest ~$1B in new wind and solar generation and $3B in new transmission lines to move that electricity.
Southern Co. (NYSE:SO) VP Jeff Burleson says Trump's near-term planning "doesn’t affect our long-term planning for future generation,” which does not envision coal as economically viable in its 50-year planning horizon.
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