The Daily Caller reports:
The cost of complying with federal environmental regulations has forced American Electric Power to shut down an Ohio coal plant rather than convert it to a natural gas-burning power plant, says a Buckeye State congressman.
In February, AEP reached an agreement with environmental groups, eight U.S. states and the Environmental Protection Agency to modify a 2007 lawsuit to stop burning coal at three power plants in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio by 2015.
As part of the agreement, AEP was given the option to modify the Ohio plant to burn natural gas, but high regulatory costs and market conditions made the company decide to retire the plant instead.
I suspect that it is cheaper to build a gas fired plant from scratch than to convert a coal plant to natural gas. Surly they would not want to make steam by burning natural gas. That’s not an efficient way to convert gas into electricity. Steam can be part of the process in an efficient gas fired plant. You might be able to reuse some of the stuff.
15,000 to 37,000 megawatts to be replaced by? unicorn farts?