u/TheQuarantinian

New law signed into effect with little fanfare on March 26, 2026. Expected to be fully operational in August (needs to seat 7 members) this bill promises to help entities get cash for coal plants they want to offload but nobody wants to buy.

This bill creates a "firewalled" entity (it isn't on the state's books, but is a corporate entity owned by the state) that gets about $500,000/year from the state for administrative costs, but everything else is supposed to be self funded. The name of the unit is the Utah Energy Infrastructure Service District.

The entity has one purpose: buy and operate coal fired power plants that private and municipal units don't want to or can't afford to keep running. The district will issue bonds to pay for the plants and either run them or decommission as necessary.

The district does not have to consider the cost of decommission when purchasing the coal plants. The inevitable expense is removed from the current owners and assumed by the district, which now has to issue bonds to cover net losses - there is no way to generate that much revenue from decommissioning old coal plants.

The state is technically not liable, but when the bills come due the district will inevitably threaten to default on their 4% bonds, and as a state owned corporate entity either the state will have to step in to cover or lose its AAA bond rating.

That decommission bit is the expensive bit. Decommissioning a plant can cost up to $500 million for the environmental cleanup. But the district will take care of that.

Things to consider:

California passed a law saying they can't buy coal generated power.

The EPA is trying hard to shut down coal plants.

All future power plants in Utah will be gas and nuclear, which ultimately are cheaper to run per kWh than coal. Coal is a dead end.