Guzman, Joseph. “Georgia Power Plans to Retire All Coal-Fired Power Plants by 2035.” TheHill, 1 Feb. 2022, https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/energy/592308-georgia-power-plans-to-retire-all-coal-fired-power.
Georgia’s largest electric utility company has now decided to shift away from coal, and start transitioning to alternative, clean energy. Georgia Power plans to retire all coal-fired power plants by 2035, with its last two plants getting closed during that year. This company owns fourteen coal units, with twelve of them planned to close from now until 2028. The remaining two will be up and running until 2035, to ensure its customers will have a reliable source of power throughout all of this. Now there is lots of power being lost by these shut-downs, which is why Georgia Power is partnering up with its parent company(Southern Company) to secure over 2,300 MW of natural gas for 2022-2028, and up to 6,000 MW of renewables by 2035. Natural gas still emits carbon dioxide, but it is far less harmful than coal, making it a good substitute while plans for renewable energy fall into place. People say it is a step in the right direction, but think that a more immediate plan for clean energy would save money and provide jobs.
I think that it is really good to see Georgia transitioning to cleaner energy, and it is even better that it was started by the power companies themselves. This, along with some of the other articles I looked at, have given me a lot of hope for the future, as even those who have to do the most work for clean energy, and have an established system around coal, are realizing that change needs to happen.This is absolutely a step in the right direction, and again it is good that they are setting up realistic timelines. Some people argue that it could be done sooner, or that they should switch completely to clean energy immediately, but I’d rather have them get it done on their own time rather than not at all. Pushing companies and political representatives into promises they either can’t or don’t want to keep almost always ends in unfinished business, so I think it is best they manage their company how they see best. Plus, if more states begin the transition as well, states can ‘work together’ to decrease emissions, without putting too much pressure on certain companies and states.
I thought this article was interesting to read because of the increase of companies that have decided to switch to cleaner energy sources. Seeing this change, do you believe that more companies will make this change as well?
I think it is definitely possible for more companies to start making these changes, and I would’ve expected to see them in more liberal states, as democrats tend to care about environmental issues more. It was really interesting and good to hear that a more conservative state like Georgia is taking strides to eliminate fossil fuels.
I agree with you that it does give me hope for the future if the companies that are leading the charge in contributing to climate change are trying to change. Do you think these companies are only lead by incentives?
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if a majority of companies did do these things for the incentives. These businesses are having to spend more money and stray away from the business structure they’ve known for years, so unless someone in corporate is really passionate about climate change, I believe incentives play a big role.