Since President Donald Trump was elected, a coal plant has shut down every 15 days, on average, according to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.
On Wednesday, Michigan electric utility company Consumers Energy announced that it will become coal-free by 2040, and Karn Generating Complex will be retired by 2031, making it "the 270th coal plant to announce its retirement since the Beyond Coal campaign started in 2010 and the 32nd coal plant to announce it’s (sic) retirement since Donald Trump was elected President," the group told the New Republic in a statement.
"We know as an energy company we have an impact on the planet," Patti Poppe, president and CEO of Consumers and its parent company, CMS Energy, told The Detroit News.
"And we intend our impact to be positive and, in fact, to leave that better than we found it. Michigan can be seen as a leader in clean energy and a leader nationally in clean and affordable energy."
According to The New York Times, the number of coal-fired power plants has dropped from 580 in 2010, accounting for 45 percent of the country’s electricity, to below 350 by March 2018, providing 30 percent of the nation's power, with 40 more set to close or shrink capacity by 2025.
"We built a lot of our coal fleet 40 years ago, and it's costly to maintain," said Joshua D. Rhodes, research fellow at the University of Texas Austin's Energy Institute, told the Times. "Many utilities are now finding that there are plenty of lower-cost options."
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