I read with shock your front page article about Matt Solomon’s group, Club 20 of Purdue University, commencing an Energy Impact Analysis which is intended to include Craig Station, and looking for funding of $2 million to conduct a long term study (although it appears that study will be broad-horizoned and include a lot besides Craig Station.) 

This relevant bit of news comes seven years after the announcement by XCEL and Tri-State their decision to close the plant, implying they’d already done this study.  Anschutz has built a huge wind farm in Wyoming and the Transwest Corridor transmission line to Las Vegas, implying he’d done a study of his own using slightly more than $2 million of his $18 billion net worth. Musk jumped in years ago with Tesla, imagining that solar and wind power could be stored in car batteries owned by millions of individuals who could afford electric, thus spreading the grid into the private auto market. Probably he had a million or two he invested in such a study as Club 20 envisions, back when.

Xcel Energy is a government-regulated monopoly that is allowed to earn a set profit percentage on its approved infrastructure investments, leading to very stable, high-profit margins nearing 10%. Xcel Energy is a co-owner of the Craig Station coal-fired power plant in Colorado. While Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association operates the facility and solely owns Unit 3, Xcel Energy owns a portion of Units 1 and 2, which were scheduled for retirement by 2025 and 2028, respectively.  Yet, now we hear that no long term impact study has been done.

Craig Station historically accounted for 47% of Moffat County’s GDP.  It is the rug about to be yanked out. Trump (Moffat County’s choice by 81%) had to issue an executive order to keep it open and the Craig Press’s response was to print the “irony of Craig Station 1” highlighted by Allen Best in Big Pivots revolving around that order to keep the 427-megawatt coal unit in Craig operating, despite it being disabled by mechanical failure at the time of the order, and scheduled for retirement. 

Now we can all see that unit is back in service and no long term plan has been done.