The Reliability U-Turn: Why Utility Leaders Are Rethinking Coal Retirements

So, I was catching up on the news this morning with a second cup of coffee and saw something that really made me stop. The Tennessee Valley Authority just voted to keep their Kingston and Cumberland coal plants running indefinitely. If you’ve been following the industry for the last few years, you know how big of a deal that is. Not long ago, every headline was about the "end of coal" and how fast we could retire these old units to meet carbon goals. Now, the nation’s largest public power provider is making a complete 180.