One of the largest coal-fired power plants in the western US is to close two of its four units in the next few days as the Montana facility edges toward an eventual total shutdown.
Colstrip Units 1 and 2 — built in the 1970s when massive strip mines were being developed across Montana and Wyoming — will close by Sunday or as soon as they run out of coal to burn, Talen Energy spokeswoman Taryne Williams said on Thursday.
The plant employs about 300 people and is the main driver of the economy for the surrounding town of Colstrip, which has about 2,300 people.
Photo: AP
However, it has been unable to compete with surging investments into sources of renewable energy and cheap natural gas, as the coal plant’s operating costs have risen with the need for better pollution controls.
Some employees for now will be reassigned to decommissioning work that will last through the middle of this year, Williams said.
There are “no hard and fast numbers or timelines” as the company considers how many workers will be needed for the remaining two units, she said.
The closure of units 1 and 2 was long anticipated as demand for US coal collapsed in recent years and came despite vows by elected officials in Montana to find ways to keep it open.
The two closing units are operated by Pennsylvania-based Talen, which co-owns them with Puget Sound Energy of Washington State.
US Senator Duane Ankney, who represents Colstrip in the Montana Legislature, said the impending closure was a “prime example” of how out-of-state interests were hurting the coal industry to the detriment of Montana.
“Coal does so much more than power our homes. Coal funds our public schools, infrastructure, parks and libraries,” Ankney said in a statement.
A representative of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1638, which represents most of the plant’s union employees, could not be reached immediately for comment.
Williams said Talen was “committed to doing what is right by our employees”and will help affected workers to transition to new jobs.
The doors to the two units are to be welded shut tomorrow, Ankney said.
However, there are no plans to dismantle them, because of their proximity to the two remaining units, Williams said.
The large volume of ash generated by burning coal at Colstrip has contaminated groundwater with toxic materials and is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up. Plans for that cleanup are pending with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
Six utilities own shares of Colstrip’s remaining two units, which were built in the 1980s. Most of the owners are making preparations for operations to cease as early as 2025.
However, one of the owners, Northwestern Energy, plans for Colstrip to keep running past 2040 and last month announced that it wants to acquire part of Puget Sound Energy’s interest in Colstrip Unit 4 for US$1.
That would boost South Dakota-based NorthWestern’s ownership interest in the power plant to 55 percent even as many other utilities across the US have been getting out of the coal power market in recent years.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such