Energy Secretary Visits Coal-Fired Electric Plant to Promote American Energy
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the different regions of the United States have different energy resources.
In Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania that’s coal.
"The Biden administration counted success in how many coal plants they closed, and if you close coal plants, you close coal mines. And what did that mean? That meant more expensive electricity prices and greater risk of blackouts," he said.
Wright spoke with press after touring the Gilberton Power Company – John B. Rich Memorial Power Station Monday in Frackville. The plant turns coal waste into electricity. The secretary was joined by Republican U.S. Reps. Dan Meuser, Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan, all in hardhats, during a tour of the plant.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright speaks with an employee in the control center of the Gilberton Power Company – John B. Rich Memorial Power Station in Frackville.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, left, speaks with an employee in the control center of the Gilberton Power Company – John B. Rich Memorial Power Station in Frackville.
Aimee Dilger, WVIA News
The stop was part of Wright’s Great American Energy Comeback Tour, highlighting the Trump administration's recent actions "unleashing" America’s coal and manufacturing industries and other efforts underway to make energy more affordable and reliable, according to the Department of Energy.
"Pennsylvania is the center of America's industrial might, and it has been for two centuries. And with smart governance, the Republicans can keep control of Congress, and we can continue to roll back the nonsense of the Biden administration. We can truly see a jobs industrial renaissance in the United States that'll drive up wages and lower prices," he said.
Meuser is running for his fifth term in congress. Mackenzie and Bresnahan are both running for a second term.
Wright said federal support for companies, like the power station, keeps costs down for Americans..
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Global Coal Prices Rise as Thermal and Met Coal Strengthen
Global coal prices continued to strengthen over the past week as European coal gained support from low gas storage levels, while thermal and metallurgical markets in Asia-Pacific also moved higher.
Over the past week, the upward momentum in the coal market continued: the growing trend persisted in Europe; in China, Indonesia, and Australia, thermal coal prices rose; quotations for Australian metallurgical material bounced up.
The situation surrounding Iran, which is currently the main factor shaping the dynamics of the energy markets, remains unchanged. The expiration of the 60-day Memorandum of Understanding agreed by the US and Iran on August 17 brought no breakthroughs in negotiations between the countries.
President Trump stated that the naval blockade remains in full force. Meanwhile, Iran declared the sea route would remain closed until the US fulfills the terms of the interim agreement. On August 20, the US president announced the start of a large-scale economic war against Iran, simultaneously threatening sanctions against any country that supports Iran or does business with it.
European thermal coal indices rose above 127 USD/t. Low gas storage levels in Germany are boosting optimism in the coal market. German UGS facilities are 50% full, which is a low level, especially ahead of the winter heating season. Market participants point out that growing uncertainty over EU gas storage levels will likely lead to increased coal trading activity in the coming months as restocking demand on the continent intensifies.
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Miners' Union Demands Reinstatement of MSHA Silica Rule
United Mine Workers of America President Brian Sanson is pressing the Mine Safety and Health Administration to immediately resume enforcement of the agency’s rule limiting miner exposure to respirable crystalline silica.
Sanson cites recent NIOSH research showing that nearly 1 in 3 coal miners in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia with at least 25 years of experience have coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, commonly called black lung. That percentage is 10 times higher than that for the rest of the country.
“Every day federal regulators drag their feet and sit on this rule, another working father, mother, husband, wife, sister or brother contracts an incurable, fatal disease,” Sanson said in a press release. “Someone’s life is forever changed. A company’s profit margin cannot take precedence over a miner’s right to draw a breath.”
The Department of Labor’s most recent regulatory agenda includes proposed revisions to MSHA’s 2024 final rule on miner exposure to silica.
Issued July 3, the regulatory agenda listed July as a target publication date, but the revised proposal hadn’t been unveiled at press time. The new proposal “includes changes to provisions for exposure monitoring, medical surveillance and respiratory protection,” the agency says.
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Energy Secretary Keeps Critical Generation Available in Mid-Atlantic
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has issued an emergency order to address critical grid reliability issues facing the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The emergency order directs PJM Interconnection L.L.C. (PJM), in coordination with Constellation Energy Corporation, to ensure Units 3 and 4 of the Eddystone Generating Station in Pennsylvania remain available to operate and to employ economic dispatch to minimize costs for the American people. The units were originally slated to shut down on May 31, 2025.
“The energy sources that perform when you need them most are the most valuable,” Secretary Wright said. “During recent Mid-Atlantic heat waves, coal, natural gas, and nuclear kept the lights and air conditioners on. President Trump and the Energy Department are committed to keeping critical generation available when demand is highest, reducing the risk of blackouts and ensuring Americans have affordable, reliable, and secure power—regardless of whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining.”
As outlined in DOE’s Resource Adequacy Report, power outages could increase by 100 times in 2030 if the U.S. continues to take reliable power offline.
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Hidden in Plain Sight: Existing Coal Plants offer the Generation that Today Demands
Thanks to this new age of electricity demand and power-hungry data centers, the U.S. currently has record amounts of electricity generation in development. But that build out is getting both harder and more expensive, in the face of demand that waits for no one.
What’s the holdup? Baseload power projects requiring natural gas turbines are facing years long delays as turbine manufacturers are taking orders now for delivery in 2031. More delays come from those who simply don’t want new transmission in their backyards, with about a third of projects challenged in court in the predevelopment phase (the number’s even higher for solar projects, two-thirds of which are litigated). Even more energy projects are stuck waiting years in interconnection queues.
But while we continue to wind ourselves in knots over the new generation conundrum, a real solution is available: the existing coal fleet.
Thankfully the Trump administration recognizes that we have existing megawatts hiding in plain sight in the form of coal plants that are either prematurely retiring or are running at capacity factors well below what they could produce.
Last week, the Department of Energy issued an emergency order to keep the J.H. Campbell plant open through mid-November 2026. The plant was originally scheduled to retire in 2025 but has proven critical to the region’s electricity reliability during periods of peak demand and low generation from intermittent sources of energy.
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