Will the EPA partially close a Wyoming coal plant that's one of the nation's largest polluters?

The Jim Bridger power plant in south-central Wyoming is one of the nation’s largest polluters as well as the third-largest cause of haze pollution in national parks, according to a 2020 report by the National Parks Conservation Association. The plant consists of four coal-fired units. Now, two of them may be forced to close, with potentially far-reaching implications for the local economy, Wyoming’s air quality and the regional power grid at large.

Eight years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the plant’s owners that it had to reduce the pollution it emitted to comply with a regional haze plan. The plant is Wyoming’s largest source of haze pollution, according to EPA data compiled by the NPCA. Those pollution controls were supposed to have been installed by the end of 2021. But the plant did not do this. Instead, late last year, its owners, along with the state of Wyoming, filed an alternative proposal that claimed to fulfill the requirements of the regional haze plan. In January, however, the EPA ruled that the alternative plan was insufficient.

What happens next is uncertain. There’s a strong possibility that Jim Bridger Unit 2 could be forced to close in a few weeks, while Unit 1 might be shuttered by the end of 2022.

The plant’s majority owner is the Western utility giant PacifiCorp, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s investment firm. PacifiCorp was already planning to convert Jim Bridger’s units 1 and 2 to natural gas in 2024, according to a 2021 company plan, although it’s unclear whether that would stave off closure. The other two units, according to the plan, would continue to burn coal until 2037.

Read more: https://www.hcn.org/articles/north-pollution-will-the-epa-partially-close-a-wyoming-coal-plant-thats-one-of-the-nations-largest-polluters
(High Country News)