{"id":17269,"date":"2026-01-02T04:20:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-administration-tells-colorado-coal-generator-to-stay-open\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T04:20:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:20:30","slug":"trump-administration-tells-colorado-coal-generator-to-stay-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-administration-tells-colorado-coal-generator-to-stay-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration tells Colorado coal generator to stay open"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1767220471000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>                                    <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                            <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) &mdash; The Trump administration has told another <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-coal-ai-data-centers-energy-dominance-693e2604785c07ff790d9afd2e06d543\">coal-fired power facility<\/a><\/span>  to remain open, this time ordering the owners of a Colorado electricity generating unit to keep it running beyond its Wednesday retirement date. <\/p>\n<p>Compliance will cost Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and the other owners of the Craig Station power plant in northwestern Colorado. The plant owners will need to fix a broken valve that put the power plant&rsquo;s 446-megawatt Unit 1 out of operation on Dec. 19, Tri-State said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The order from Energy Secretary Chris Wright follows recent Department of Energy moves to keep coal-fired power stations open in Indiana, Washington state and <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/michigan-campbell-coal-plant-trump-energy-f5c723fe09dd720715de2c941fa2cf0c\">Michigan<\/a><\/span>  despite efforts by their owners to close them.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s part of President Donald Trump&rsquo;s <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/epa-trump-zeldin-fossil-fuels-transformation-1e9de2d2f9e1cba13922374478b463b1\">push<\/a><\/span>  to <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-coal-public-lands-sales-3239c138a851b157c340fe3f5d1fc600\">revive the U.S. coal industry<\/a><\/span>  at a time when many utilities are shifting to cheaper, less-polluting energy sources such as natural gas and renewables. The administration, meanwhile, has blocked renewable energy, including <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-offshore-wind-energy-climate-337980893e944ca274e46dbb70d04cb1\">wind power.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 45-year-old generator in Colorado, one of three at Craig Station, had been scheduled to close at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As a not-for-profit cooperative, our membership will bear the costs of compliance with this order unless we can identify a method to share costs with those in the region,&rdquo; Tri-State CEO Duane Highley said in the statement.<\/p>\n<div data-module-tracksubscribe data-gtm-topic=\"No Value\" data-align-center>\n<p>Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029Va7Tv2j59PwNEyqGCi1y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">            <span>Follow on<\/span>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/f50b139\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/131x31+0+0\/resize\/131x31!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F8c%2Fe0%2F2615e5984b5ebb8b89fd3ade6941%2Fwhatsapp-logo.png\" alt=\"WhatsApp\">        <\/a>    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The power plant&rsquo;s owners had been planning since 2016 to shut down Unit 1 for economic reasons and to comply with &ldquo;numerous state and federal requirements.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Asked how much returning the unit to operation would cost and how long that would take, Tri-State spokesperson Amy Robertson said by email that the utility had no further information to share.<\/p>\n<p>The generator must remain operational to address a shortage of electricity and electrical generation in the northwestern U.S., Wright wrote in Tuesday&rsquo;s emergency order keeping the unit operational.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Trump Administration is committed to lowering energy costs and keeping American families safe,&rdquo; Wright said in a release.<\/p>\n<p>Wade Gerber, who works at the power plant, said the announcement changes little for Colorado&rsquo;s coal country, which is <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-coal-mining-power-climate-craig-electricity-e78eb827848973f5712a20da55133a94\">undergoing a long-term shift<\/a><\/span>  away from the fossil fuel as a pillar of the local economy.<\/p>\n<p>He sees Craig &mdash; a city of about 9,000 people &mdash; as caught in the middle of a dizzying political battle.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What does this administration get to do? What does the next administration get to do? Is it going to make (coal) any long-term thing? No, probably not,&rdquo; Gerber said.<\/p>\n<p>Gerber recently opened a distillery that caters to the cocktail lounge his wife owns next door, with plans to begin distributing more widely in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I already told both my bosses, if that blows up even a little bit, I can tell you: &lsquo;Here&rsquo;s my two-week notice,&rsquo;&rdquo; Gerber said.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado officials criticized the Trump administration order as a disservice to electricity users. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It is unacceptable to burden ratepayers with these unnecessary costs,&rdquo; Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The power plant was completed in 1980. Its No. 2 and No. 3 units have been scheduled to be retired in 2028. The plant&rsquo;s fuel is mined at the nearby Trapper Mine, which is also scheduled to close.<\/p>\n<p>____<\/p>\n<p>Brittany Peterson in Denver contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP&rsquo;s environmental coverage, visit <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/climate-and-environment\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/climate-and-environment<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-coal-plant-electricity-craig-64eab6db7145003c1b7c7bc7584ec7b9\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) &mdash; The Trump administration has told another coal-fired power facility to remain open, this time ordering the owners of a Colorado electricity generating unit to keep it running beyond its Wednesday retirement date. Compliance will cost Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and the other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}