The state of West Virginia only recently became less than 90% coal powered as other sources came online. In fact, natural gas recently overtook wind power to become the second largest generation source in the state. This is despite the availability of abundant natural gas and some of the least expensive natural gas in the country. The coal lobby is very strong in the state and has long opposed natural gas power. The state has the highest per capita carbon emissions and, more importantly, likely the highest per capita air pollution emissions from the power sector in the country. Wyoming rivals it with coal-fired output, but Wyoming is a state with a lower population and is not near population centers in nearby states, unlike West Virginia. The state produces more power than it consumes, so some of its production is exported to nearby states. Thus, it also exports coal power for consumption in nearby states.
I was a bit flabbergasted to
read that the U.S. Dept. of Energy is planning to offer millions in funding for a
new 1.6 GW coal-fired plant in West Virginia. If that plant were online today,
it would bring the coal share back up to 89%. The state is an aberration, being
powered by coal far more than any other state (except Wyoming). I also think
the administration has been overly cautious in ordering the delay of some coal
plant retirements. The utility companies in those states, some red, some blue,
generally say the retirement delays are not needed.
Trump said that coal-powered
electricity is cheaper, so I thought I would look at the EIA data. West
Virginia, 87% coal-powered, had an average residential electricity price of
16.37 cents per kW-hour. I first compared with nearby states that have less but
still significant amounts of coal production. Ohio is at 18.78 cents/kWh, and
Pennsylvania is at 20.92 cents/kW-hr. However, when I looked at nearby
Virginia, which is powered by natural gas (56.5%), nuclear (26.3%), solar
(8.45%), coal (3.36%), and biomass (3.33%), I saw that the residential
electricity price as just 17.05 cents/kW-hr, only slightly more expensive than
nearly all-coal West Virginia, with barely any coal -fired power. Thus, the
argument that coal-powered electricity is cheaper has some truth to it, but it
is really just slightly cheaper. Many states with far less coal-fired power
produce it cheaper than West Virginia. There are many different reasons for
power cost differences, but the argument that coal power is cheaper is not a super-strong
one to promote coal. It is likely only moderately cheaper. If negative
externalities like air quality degradation are accounted for, the societal
expense of coal goes up, not to mention carbon emissions.
The Trump administration has
announced two new coal-fired plants in Anchorage, Alaska, and Mt. Storm, West
Virginia, which would total 2.85 GW of capacity. They would be the first new
U.S. coal plants to come online since 2013. They announced $850 million in
funding for the two new plants and various upgrades to 17 existing facilities.
David Jenkins, president of
Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, had some harsh words about the
announcement:
“{It is} swamp politics at its worst, and there is nothing
even remotely conservative about it.”
As in several of the
administration’s moves, they cited an emergency situation, invoking the Defense
Production Act funding to expand the coal industry.
“Last year we prevented 17 GW of coal-powered
electricity from going offline. That’s enough power for about 13 million homes,
and at a very low price. It’s the lowest price,” Trump said of coal
resources.
Of course, most of those
plants were operating at very low utilization rates, far below their
capacities. The most inefficient plants are commonly the first to face
retirement, in addition to the oldest ones.
According to Utility Dive:
“This move, along with the President blocking the
retirement of old coal plants that are too costly to operate, is making most
Americans poorer,” Jenkins said. “This is a total misuse of the Defense
Production Act, a giant giftwrapped payout to subsidize and prop up a flailing
industry that can no longer compete in the free market.”
Below, they summarize some of
the planned upgrades:
“In a separate announcement, DOE said four projects will
receive up to $350 million under the agency’s “Restoring Reliability: Coal
Recommissioning and Modernization” initiative, to add or preserve roughly 3.6
GW of coal-fired capacity.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright
had this to say:
“Americans are upset about high electricity prices,”
Wright said at the White House event. “Blame closing existing, reliable, secure
plants, and replacing them with subsidized, unreliable plants — a guaranteed
way to drive electricity prices up.”
What he doesn’t mention is
that natural gas plants are reliable, more dispatchable than coal since they
can be ramped up and down more easily, and can provide baseload power as
cheaply as coal in many places, and can do it much cleaner than coal. It is
true that more intermittent renewables on the grid drive up power prices. That
is a good argument for slowing down the transition to cleaner power, but, of
course, it is not a reason to abandon it. In the case of West Virginia, it
should have a massive abundance of baseload, generally dispatchable power, but
that coal power is not as readily dispatchable as natural gas power.
References:
Trump administration
announces $850M to modernize US coal capacity, build two new plants. Robert
Walton. Utility Dive. June 5, 2026. Trump
administration announces $850M to modernize US coal capacity, build 2 new
plants | Utility Dive
List
of power stations in West Virginia. Wikipedia. List
of power stations in West Virginia - Wikipedia
Electric
Power Monthly: Table 5.6.A. Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers
by End-Use Sector, by State, March 2026 and 2025 (Cents per Kilowatthour). Energy
Information Administration. Electric
Power Monthly - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
List
of power stations in Virginia. Wikipedia. List of
power stations in Virginia - Wikipedia
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