Major U.S. Utility Will Close Three Coal-Burning Plants in Midwest

One of the U.S.’s largest electric utilities has agreed to close three coal-fired power plants in the Midwest, the latest sign of how the U.S.’s electricity supply is shifting away from coal to natural gas and renewable energy.

American Electric Power (AEP) will shut down the three plants in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky by 2015 — retiring a total of 2,011 megawatts of coal-burning capacity — and replace some of the power generation with wind and solar investments in Indiana and Michigan.

According to the agreement, which settles a lawsuit originally filed in 1999 over the environmental costs of pollution that drifts east from the plants, the Ohio-based company will also spend $5 billion to install pollution-control technologies at its aging coal-burning plants in the eastern U.S. and cut its annual sulfur dioxide emissions from 828,000 tons to 174,000 tons within 12 years.

With the latest shut-downs, utilities have now closed or announced the closing of 142 coal-burning plants since 2010.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.