![]() ![]() ![]() Neighboring states that were once heavily reliant on coal are moving away from it. “Sure, going up because of all the different regulations being put on everything,” Manchin told CNN. These upgrades would allow the plants to stay open until 2040, rather than being shut down in 2028. “It was like my plastic kingdom, trying to keep the heat in.”ĪEP’s three coal-fired power plants in West Virginia – John Amos, Mountaineer and Mitchell – are in need of $448 million worth of mandatory upgrades in order to remain federally compliant, causing electricity rates to increase by 3.3% starting in September 2022, according to Tammy Ridout, a spokesperson for AEP. “You staple, and you tape, and you plastic all those drafty spaces,” she said. Her gas furnace only heats the first level of the house, so Chase relies on electric baseboards and five space heaters to keep the second level warm. That could mess with Biden's climate agendaĬovering the cracks with sheets of plastic brings little relief. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post/Getty ImagesĪnalysis: Gas prices are high. President Joe Biden makes remarks during a press conference on the grounds of National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on Septemin Arvada, Colorado. “So I’m not going to sit back and let anyone accelerate whatever the market’s changes are doing.” “The transition’s already happening,” Manchin told CNN. With three of the state’s major coal-fired power plants in need of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of mandatory upgrades, costs for ratepayers like Chase will continue to go up.Ĭoal may be a dying industry in the US, but Joe Manchin, a key Democratic swing vote in the Senate, isn’t interested in hastening its demise. The state is the second-largest coal producer in the country, and coal generates nearly 89% of its electricity compared to just 19% nationwide – a steep fall from 1990, when coal powered 52% of US electricity.īut coal has become more expensive than renewables or natural gas, the prices of which have fallen rapidly, and in West Virginia, the ratepayers are footing the bill. Her cumulative bill has gone as high as $1,400.Īs America has largely transitioned away from coal-fired power, West Virginia has thrown its weight behind it. In September, she was still paying down a remaining balance of $600 from the winter before – twice the cost of her monthly mortgage payment. Her electricity bill spikes every January, when Chase estimates her electricity usage increases five- or six-fold. “Around here the old adage is ‘coal keeps the lights on.’ Anyone struggling to keep their electric on knows it’s more than the lights.” “It does feel wrong when your electric bill is more than your mortgage,” Chase told CNN. During the winter months in West Virginia, Felisha Chase pays more for her electricity than she does for her home. ![]()
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