Operator of Big Montana Coal Plant Will Keep on Running It
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The operator of one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the Western U.S. plans to keep running the 2,100-megawatt plant, a spokesman said Wednesday, in an abrupt reversal from its declaration last year that a new operator would be needed by mid-2018.
The co-owners of the Colstrip Generating Station have decided Pennsylvania-based Talen Energy will keep running the southeastern Montana plant for the foreseeable future, said Talen spokesman Todd Martin.
Martin did not give a reason for the reversal, which was first reported by the Billings Gazette based on interviews with representatives of other utilities involved in the plant.
The move came as the coal industry has received a political boost from the administration of President Donald Trump following a protracted decline.
Talen executives asserted last year that the plant was no longer economically viable. A company lobbyist told lawmakers in March that it was losing about $30 million annually on the plant surrounded by several mines and cattle ranches in the small town of Colstrip near the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.
Montana lawmakers this year approved a measure allowing Talen to borrow up to $10 million annually to keep Colstrip fully operational until 2022. The unprecedented arrangement was intended to prop up the plant as coal-plant closures sweep through the utility industry.
