Coal Age

NOV 2015

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O n the same day the final version of the Environmental Protection A gency's (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP) was published in the Federal Register, a 24-state coalition, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Murray Energy Corp. announced they had filed lawsuits challenging the rule, which sets standards for emissions of carbon dioxide for newly constructed, modified and reconstructed fossil fuel-fired electric utility generating units. "Once again, President Obama and his EPA have overstepped their legal authority and enacted a regulation that will dramati- c ally raise Texans' electric bills and threaten the reliability of the electric grid," said Paxton. "The Texas Attorney General's Office is leading a nationwide coalition, along with West Virginia, to prevent massive increases in electric bills that would hurt hard- working families, the elderly and the poor." O ther states in the lawsuit include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to Paxton. Murray Energy is seeking an immediate stay of the rule and said, "This is an unprecedented attempt by the EPA to comman- deer and re-design the United States' electrical system, essential- ly dictating how electricity is to be produced and how much can be used. This political power grab of America's power grid by the O b a m a E P A i s c l e a r l y i l l e g a l , g o e s f a r b e y o n d a n y s t a t u t o r y authority, and is, in fact, expressly prohibited by the Clean Air Act." n e w s 4 www.coalage.com November 2015 B R E A K I N G N E W S Dynegy to Retire Wood River Power Plant Dynegy announced plans to retire its 465-megawatt (MW) Wood River power plant in Alton, Illinois, in mid-2016. The Wood River power plant includes two coal-fired units that entered commercial operation in 1954 and 1964, respectively. The decision to retire the Wood River facility is due to its uneconom- ic operation stemming from a poorly designed wholesale capacity mar- ket in central and southern Illinois that does not allow competitive generators to recover costs, according to Dynegy. The current market design of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc. (MISO) capacity auction is flawed because it allows regu- lated utilities from surrounding states to bid their capacity into the auction at little to no cost, as these regulated utilities receive higher guaranteed compensation from their respective state-regulated mar- kets, Dynegy said. Central and southern Illinois market participants operate in a state with a deregulated competitive framework and must rely on the MISO capacity auction for fair compensation. Mixing these two regimes together in the same capacity auction puts all generating units in central and southern Illinois at financial risk, regardless of fuel type, shifting jobs and the economic benefits of hosting generating plants from central and southern Illinois to neighboring states, Dynegy said. "Wood River has been an important part of the local community for many years providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective power while also being a responsible corporate citizen," said Robert C. Flexon, president and CEO of Dynegy. "Dynegy is committed to working with MISO, the state of Illinois, union leadership, and all stakeholders to redesign the MISO capacity market to one that properly functions and fairly compen- sates competitive generators or alternatively, to transition Illinois fully into PJM. Otherwise, all generating plants in the MISO portion of Illinois will face a future of financial challenge. If Wood River was located in the PJM market, like Dynegy's northern Illinois generating units, it is unlikely this retirement would be occurring," Flexon said. Dynegy expects to formally file a retirement notice with MISO by December 1. This retirement notice will trigger a reliability review by MISO, which the company expects to be completed in the first quarter of 2016. If MISO determines the plant is not needed for reliability, Dynegy expects the retirement to occur in mid-2016. 24-state Coalition, MEC File Separate Suits to Stop Clean Power Plan Source: American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (www.americaspower.org)

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