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20 www.coalage.com August 2016 news continued meet in southern Illinois. The company also owns the Lone Eagle dock near Chester on the Mississippi River. St. Louis-based Arch Coal Inc. owns a 49% stake in Knight Hawk. Arch was in the pro- cess of exiting Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in late July. Consumers Lays Out Cost Recovery Plan Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette wants Consumers Energy, the state's second-largest electric utility, to take advan- tage of lower steam coal prices by burning more coal instead of natural gas in its power plants, a move he claims would save customers money. In a July filing with the Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC), the Republican attorney general said the decline in natural gas prices and continued move away from coal-fueled generation by many power plant operators "also has put downward pressure on coal prices. The cost of coal-fueled generation is forecast to drop slightly in 2016 to $25.37/MWh versus $26.13/MWh" when Consumers filed its 2015 power supply cost recovery plan with the commission. However, he added, the amount of energy to be produced by Consumers' fleet of coal plants is projected to decrease by more than 2.6 million MWh this year, or 33% from the amount forecast in 2015. This significant decline appears to be related to Consum- ers' retirement in April 2016 of its "Classic Seven" older coal units representing about 950 megawatts of generation, the attorney general added. In contrast, Consumers plans to operate its Jackson and Zeeland natural gas-fired plants more this year, even though 946-megawatt Zeeland Unit 3 has incremental costs higher than some or all of the utility's coal units, according to the attorney general. Although the operation of natural gas-fired plants at higher incremental cost would be justified when coal plants are operat- ing at full load, "this does not appear to be the case" in Consum- ers' 2016 plan, Schuette said. In response to an information request from the attorney gen- eral, Consumers said its remaining five coal units — three at its J.H. Campbell baseload plant in West Olive, Michigan, and two at its Karn baseload plant near Bay City, Michigan — are planned to be operated at a capacity factor ranging from 55% to 70% this year "with plant availability at much higher percentages." The attorney general concluded, "the company has the ca- pacity within its coal plants to generate lower-cost power instead of running some of its natural gas plants at a higher cost." Consumers, a CMS Energy Corp. subsidiary, disputed Schuette's assertion that its 1.8 million customers could save money if the utility burned more coal than gas to generate elec- tricity. The Jackson-based utility purchased Zeeland from LS Power Group in 2007. The PSC had not issued a final ruling on Consumers' latest power supply cost recovery plan as of late July. Colstrip Station to Idle 2 Units The co-owners of the Colstrip Steam Electric Station and its op- erator have announced that two of its four units, representing about 600 megawatts (MW ) of power, will permanently close by July 2022, the result of a settlement deal the group made with en- vironmentalists for noncompliance with the Clean Air Act. Puget Sound Energy (PSE), along with Avista Corp., Portland General Electric Co., NorthWestern Corp., PacifiCorp and Pennsylva- nia-based plant operator Talen Montana, also said July 12 that the plant will limit pollution levels until that point. Colstrip, located in eastern Montana, has a total capacity of 2,100 MW. Units 1 and 2 are 40 years old, the oldest of the group. PSE owns 50% of the two units, and Talen owns the other 50%. The settlement was the result of a lawsuit filed in 2013 by the Sierra Club and the Montana Environmental Information Center, with the plaintiffs claiming that upgrades were per- formed without proper permits. A proposed consent decree for the agreement has already been entered to the United States District Court for the District of Montana for review and approval. In addition to a commitment by the owners to idle the units, the deal includes liability releases for the owners of all four units, without requiring monetary payments to the plaintiffs. All claims against Units 3 and 4, which are not only newer but more efficient, were dismissed and they are not part of the closure plan. Talen Montana noted that there is no formal plan or timeline at this time for the retirements of Units 1 and 2 aside from the final deadline date. "Our customers expect PSE to be good stewards of the en- vironment and to keep energy costs reasonable," PSE President and CEO Kimberly Harris said. "The eventual closure of Units 1 and 2 at Colstrip without the risk of further legal proceedings or additional significant investments in the units to meet reg- ulatory requirements enables us to accomplish both of these goals. "We know this will be a time of transition in Colstrip. We have been a part of the community for four decades, and we will con- tinue to be there for many years to come." Pennsylvania Sites Awarded Reclamation Funding The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has chosen 14 abandoned mine sites across the state that will split $30 million in reclamation funding. The awardees, which include eight former bituminous coal sites in Allegheny, Armstrong, Cam- bria, Clearfield, Clinton and Washington counties, and six former anthracite sites in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon counties, will utilize the money to conduct land cleanup and rem- edy tainted water. The DEP did not release how much each site will receive. The agency said several of the locations have plans in place or under way to convert land for other uses, such as industrial parks, or to boost recreational and tourism use. Some involved the potential use of mine water for building cooling/heating, three will clean up waterway acid mine drainage, and one re- cipient will use the funding to extinguish a long-burning coal fire. "We're not merely reclaiming abandoned mine sites," said Patrick McDonnell, acting department secretary. "We're working with partners to develop these sites as economic engines in a vari- ety of ways." The DEP awards about $27 million annually to remediation projects across Pennsylvania using federal production fees as- sessed to active mines.