It ain't political, it's business $$$. Coal is too expensive. Nuclear is risky building.

One president killed the coal ( coal use to be cheaper) industry and Nuclear is clear energy and since we have had several Nuclear power plants and real no problems your answer is wrong. Gas and Nuclear are the two both clean energies and they want to kill them. Windmills kills a lot of birds and is not as good as they thought.

One thing is at Welsh they put scrubbers into and it cost a millions. I guess they are making enough money to just walk away from it.

Sometimes you just have to walk away... The regulation about to be put back into affect and the new ones coming down the road will make running it cost prohibitive... Dan

Its absolutely political.....and profit driven. You are correct in saying it’s “business $$$” though. The plants get shut down because it’s not profitable to continue operations. But it’s absolutely also political when it’s the politically driven updated EPA requirements that cause the plants to become unprofitable.

I dont think its political anymore, its just cheaper and cleaner for even the businesses themselves. Things evolve, they always have


Even with the regs rolled back -> https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063430425


Some of my best fishing has been in power plant lakes though....

Yep, I hate losing power plant lakes for fishing. But coal long term is not going to be cost effective. If the price of a electric car was 1/2 and I could get 500 miles on a charge I'd be all for it. Who doesn't want to go 0-60 in 5 seconds. Tesla's make you feel like you're driving a rocket ship, but I'm not spending 80K on an SUV that I can only drive a few hundred miles. But eventually the tech will get better and the price will come down and we'll all be driving them. Course you still need to produce the electricity, Natural gas, solar, and wind will eventually be the way that goes down plus things we can't see. May end up with a mini nuclear reactor in your truck at some point.

It is political because politics are driving the transition, not the market. We don't have the ability to power our homes and vehicles but we are forcing the issue anyway. If alternative energy was plentiful, affordable, and dependable people would switch to it voluntarily. Instead we are going to basically be told that it is irresponsible to drive large, comfortable vehicles on long trips, as in Texas to Colorado.

Are we going to have electric outboards? How many billions of dollars worth of assets will be obsolete if fossil fuels are eliminated?

Let people choose what they want. That's how a free market society works. That's not where we are headed.

Reviving this thread to ask a question about power plant lake closures. When a plant closes, does that usually mean that access to fish the lake is also closed off? More importantly, will Brandy Branch be closed for fishing after they shut the plant down in 2023? I’m not at all familiar with power plant lakes and thought I read that Lake Monticello closed down. If that’s the case what are the chances Brandy Branch closes like Monticello did?

There are several factors to consider in these. Does the power company own all the land and the lake or is it considered public? Are there public ramps or are they only on private land owned by the company? Is the lake considered a naviagable waterway? We are still working trying to regain access to Monticello and these are the key topics of discussion.

to my limited knowledge Monticello is the only one that has closed that you can no longer access. I know of 2 reasons for this 1. It was not public waters and was sold (I could be wrong here) 2. When they closed the plant they opened the gates to Bob Sandlin and that lowered the lake enough that the ramp is a hazard for regular boats. I know that there are still lots of people enjoying the lake via Kayaks. Not sure what is legal there or not.
But Fairfield and a couple others are still used and accessible.

Jody

If you consider Mountain Creek a power plant lake, it also has very limited access.
The Dallas Baptist University fishing team has the only set of keys to the gate to the only ramp on the lake; and they keep the gate locked.

when a company owns all the land around the lake it is their lake if they dont want folks there it is their right its like having a deer lease an the property sell you get your stuff get out an dont come back.

No offense but this is wrong on several fronts. The water itself is a publically managed body of water and always has been. The only thing that was sold is the plant itself and the land it sits on. All of the other land and the water it surrounds is still for sale. And the ramp in Titus County Park worked just fine after the opened one of the gates dropping the lake a couple of feet.

More birds killed flying to windows than wind turbines..

https://www.sibleyguides.com/conservation/causes-of-bird-mortality/

Let's remove all windows.