‘In the United States we are on a trajectory of energy poverty’
Utah’s coal country is in the midst of redefining itself. Carbon County — aptly named for its rich coal resources — saw the closure of its sole coal-fired power plant in 2015. Its mines, which historically numbered 16, are all shuttered.
Struggling against the backdrop of those tangible impacts, residents had to endure a property tax increase of 700% in fiscal year 2022. Price Mayor Mike Kourianos feels the sharp knife of energy costs slicing into his budget and has to answer for that to his constituents. There is no revenue coming from coal.
As a municipal power provider, the city of Price went out into the solar energy market to purchase four megawatts of energy for the Utah State University East campus. “We thought we had locked in at $123 a megawatt,” but that changed, he said. “Now it’s $400 a megawatt. Those are the real facts of what’s happening with the grid and, you know, the cost of energy.”
The changing grid
The mayor personally feels the pain as coal is being weaned out of the energy market. Although coal remains the third largest provider of energy in the United States, it has dropped to 18% of the market share, succumbing to natural gas in the top place at 40%, in numbers documented by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
For the rest of this article: https://www.deseret.com/utah/2023/8/17/23827237/will-green-energy-kill-coal-mining-workers-biden-administration