A green future for New Mexico’s last coal plant?

By ARIANNA SKIBELL

08/18/2023 04:59 PM EDT

The Four Corners power plant in Waterflow, N.M., near the San Juan River in northwestern New Mexico. | Susan Montoya Bryan/AP Photo

A tech startup has hatched a plan to save New Mexico’s last coal plant.

The Four Corners power plant, located in the Navajo Nation roughly 200 miles northwest of Santa Fe, is slated to retire in 2031. To keep the half-century-old coal burner producing electricity, Enchant Energy is proposing a retrofit that could capture and store 95 percent of the facility’s greenhouse gas emissions, write Carlos Anchondo and Jason Plautz.

If successful, the project would be among the most ambitious U.S. carbon-capturing efforts to date. It could also offer a promising data point for the Biden administration’s efforts to compel power plants that burn coal and natural gas to install the new technology — despite skepticism from both utilities and many environmental groups.

The nation’s only commercial-scale power project to capture carbon, the Petra Nova project in Texas, shut its doors in 2020 (although it’s trying to stage a comeback). Despite this, the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest climate regulation for power plants relies heavily on the technology. And President Joe Biden’s nearly $370 billion climate law offers generous tax credits to install carbon capture and storage.

So far, the nation’s largest utilities have indicated they would rather close their fossil fuel plants than retrofit them. The lack of interest could bolster conservatives’ claim that EPA’s proposed pollution standards are too onerous. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) has pledged to challenge the rule in court.

Now, Enchant has a chance to prove the skeptics wrong. But it’s far from a done deal. While the Energy Department has indicated that the Four Corners carbon capture project is in the running for federal funding, there is no guarantee it will move forward. It’s also receiving pushback from environmental advocates, who say the project would prolong coal-fired generation in the region and postpone a transition to cleaner sources of power.

Plus, the power plant is more than half a century old, and Enchant doesn’t have the best track record. In December, the company abandoned plans to retrofit another coal-fired power plant, the San Juan Generating Station, after it failed to secure full ownership of the facility.

Thank goodness it’s Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy.

Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected]. And folks, let’s keep it classy.

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