I wonder how many other places stunts like this are happening?
Washington state's last coal-fired power plant (Canadian-owned, mind you), which under an agreement made a dozen years ago and backed up by state law, was due to switch to natural gas. This admin issued an "emergency order" to keep it on coal. My understanding is the coal mine in the area closed down in 2006, which already made it a less viable proposition.
“They don’t have coal there, they’re using up their coal by the end of the year,” Fitzgibbon said. “So are they going to have to buy new coal and bring it in and store it in Centralia? They don’t have employees ready to run this plant.”
It makes sense that they'd only have bought enough coal to keep going until the transition point, which had already been set and planned for years ago...
The Trump administration has ordered Washington’s last coal-fired power station to continue burning coal, just weeks before it was scheduled to shut down and convert to natural gas fuel.
washingtonstatestandard.com