Utah’s largest coal-fired power plant — the Intermountain Power Project (IPP), located in the Great Basin region of western Utah and primarily serving southern California — is no longer operating, after the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power quietly pulled the plug just before Thanksgiving.
The shutdown happened with no impact on customers, despite the fact that the Utah Legislature blocked the Intermountain Power Agency from fully retiring its fossil fuel units this year and ordered that the units can’t be disconnected or decommissioned. However, no buyers have lined up to purchase these outdated plants and keep them running.
With the plant now idled but legally required to remain connected, serious questions remain about who will shoulder the cost of keeping an obsolete coal facility on standby.
In response, Zack Waterman, Western Manager for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Utah and California, released the following statement: “On one of the biggest holidays of the year, people’s lights stayed on and no one noticed that these coal units went offline. That silence speaks volumes: we don’t need to keep our communities tethered to outdated, dirty coal plants to maintain reliable power. California is choosing a cleaner path forward and we’re working hard to ensure Utah does the same.”