With Latest Closure, New Mexico Has Just One Remaining Coal Plant

     It's been a long, slow, well-deserved death for New Mexico's coal industry. Since America began waging its war against climate change in earnest, three coal plants have poisoned New Mexico's air. The Escalante Generating Station was the first to close its door completely in August 2020. In 2013, Units 1, 2, and 3 of the Four Corners Generating Station closed. Two more units, four and five, are scheduled to be closed by 2031.

     Earlier this summer, Unit 1 of the San Juan Generating Station closed after nearly 50 years in operation; Units 2 and 3 had closed in 2017. 40-year-old Unit 4 closed earlier this month after contentious debate over its future: a new carbon capture project will take its place, and, rather than pollute the environment, the plant will make it cleaner. With this, San Juan Generating Station's days producing coal are over.

     This leaves Units 4 and 5 at Four Corners as the only active coal units in a state that, up until now, has gotten more than one-third of its energy from coal. Even these units are scheduled to be closed by 2031. With this in mind, I am urging the Four Corners Generating Station to move up its closure date, even if by only a few years. The overwhelming consensus is that America must phase out coal by 2030, and New Mexico is a state that has relied heavily on coal and aggressively moved to close its facilities: if any state can rid itself of coal before that 2030 deadline, it is New Mexico.

     We are making an extraordinary effort to rid this great nation of ours of coal energy, with Nevada expected to become the 10th coal-free state within a matter of months and at least 15 other states currently on track to do so by 2030. We need to continue to amp up these efforts if we are to succeed in achieving carbon neutrality, in no small part by phasing out coal entirely by 2035 or earlier.