WDRB Guest POV | Kentucky consumers shouldn’t pay more to protect coal

Check out this link to KYFREE’s WDRB Guest Point of View on the emerging energy policy debate in the 2024 session of the Kentucky General Assembly. Full text below:

Leaders in the Kentucky General Assembly say energy policy is a priority this session. That means we'll likely see more legislation aimed at keeping coal-fired power plants open beyond their useful life.

The question I ask is how any potential changes will affect consumers?

Frankfort has always been protective of the state's coal industry. For decades, that aligned with providing the lowest-cost energy for ratepayers.

That has changed.

Federal regulations continue driving up the price of coal-fired electricity. Investing in natural gas generation is the least expensive option to heat our homes. Solar and wind are competitively priced.

The coal industry's talking points now focus on reliability. However, coal-fired generation can be just as vulnerable as natural gas during extreme cold. And policy shouldn't be based on rare occurrences.

In a state with deep connections to coal, these are hard facts to hear and harder to accept.

Two things can be true: Kentuckians want our coal industry to succeed but don't want to pay excessive energy prices to prop it up.

I'm Andrew McNeill with Kentucky FREE, and that's my point of view.

Andrew McNeill is president of the Kentucky Forum for Rights, Economics and Education, a conservative advocacy group for free market issues. He is a former executive director of the Kentucky Oil & Gas Association.