Aging coal plants like Eddystone are burning through $100M and our future. Here’s why propping up coal is bad business—and how green tech and AI offer a better path.
Most people know coal is dirty. Fewer people see how quietly expensive it’s become.
The Eddystone power plant in Pennsylvania is a perfect example. The Trump administration’s “emergency” order to keep this aging fossil fuel plant online has now been extended three times, with the Sierra Club estimating the tab at around $100 million. A similar story is playing out at the J.H. Campbell coal plant in Michigan.
This matters because every extra dollar we pour into life support for coal is a dollar we’re not putting into green technology, modern grids, and smarter, cheaper clean energy systems powered by AI.
In this post, I’ll break down what’s really going on with these “emergency” coal orders, why they’re terrible energy policy, and how clean energy plus AI offers a far better path—especially for businesses trying to plan their next decade of infrastructure and sustainability investments.
What’s Behind the $100 Million Eddystone Coal Plant “Emergency”?
The Eddystone power plant was scheduled for retirement. Instead, a federal order labeled it “critical” and kept it running under a supposed emergency. That order has now been extended for the third time.
Here’s the core issue: short-term political decisions are locking ratepayers into long-term costs for outdated coal infrastructure.
How these emergency orders actually work
When the federal government declares that a power plant must stay open for reliability, a few things happen:
- The plant’s owner is guaranteed payment to keep it running
- Grid operators treat it as a must-run resource
- Costs are socialized across customers instead of evaluated against cheaper alternatives
According to the Sierra Club’s “Ticked Off” cost ticker, keeping Eddystone online under this fake emergency has already driven costs into the tens of millions, pushing toward $100 million when you include both Eddystone and the J.H. Campbell plant.
The reality? That money could fund:
- New solar and battery storage projects
- Grid upgrades that improve reliability
- AI-driven demand response programs that flatten peaks
Instead, it’s burned—literally—in coal boilers.
Why “reliability” is being misused
Reliability is a real concern. No one wants blackouts.
But coal is increasingly not the cheapest or most reliable option. Unplanned outages at aging coal plants have risen, and maintaining old equipment is both risky and expensive. Meanwhile, in many regions, clean energy with storage now undercuts coal on price per megawatt-hour.
So when you see a 50+ year-old plant kept alive “for reliability,” what you’re often looking at is political protectionism, not a serious grid strategy.
The Hidden Financial and Health Costs of Extending Coal
Propping up coal plants like Eddystone and J.H. Campbell doesn’t just cost money on paper—it hits communities twice: in higher bills and worse health.
Direct financial costs
Keeping old coal plants online piles up several cost layers:
- Capital and maintenance: Aging boilers, scrubbers, and control systems are expensive to maintain and retrofit
- Fuel costs: Coal must be mined, transported, and handled—none of that is cheap
- Regulatory compliance: Meeting air and water rules for old plants gets more costly every year
When a political order overrides market forces, it often masks the fact that cheaper alternatives are already available.
For large energy users—manufacturers, data centers, logistics hubs—this is a real competitiveness issue. You’re effectively paying a hidden coal tax in your energy bill instead of benefiting from the falling costs of renewables and storage.
Health and environmental costs
Coal plants don’t just emit CO₂. They also produce:
- Fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
- Nitrogen oxides (NOx)
- Sulfur dioxide (SO₂)
- Heavy metals like mercury
These pollutants drive asthma, heart disease, and premature deaths, especially in communities living downwind—often working-class neighborhoods and communities of color.
When an aging coal plant gets a stay of execution, the local community gets a stay of pollution.
If you care about ESG performance, workforce health, or simply risk exposure, there’s a strong business case for not anchoring your operations to coal-heavy grids when you have alternatives.
What a Smarter, Cleaner Grid Looks Like Instead
There’s a better way to keep the lights on than emergency orders and $100 million coal bailouts.
A modern grid uses green technology and AI-driven optimization to match supply and demand more intelligently. Instead of forcing a single coal plant to run 24/7, the grid becomes a flexible system of clean resources.
Core pieces of a modern clean energy system
A cleaner, smarter grid typically combines:
- Utility-scale renewables: Solar and wind as the low-cost backbone of generation
- Battery storage: Lithium-ion and emerging long-duration storage to shift renewable power across hours
- Distributed energy resources (DERs): Rooftop solar, small batteries, EVs, and smart appliances
- Flexible demand: Adjusting energy use slightly in response to grid conditions
This is where AI and data analytics become essential.
How AI keeps a renewable-dominated grid stable
AI doesn’t just “help” green technology—it’s what makes high-renewable systems practical at scale.
Here are concrete examples:
- Forecasting
- AI models predict solar and wind output down to 5–15 minute intervals
- Better forecasts mean less backup fuel is needed and fewer expensive reserves
-
Real-time grid balancing
- Algorithms decide, in milliseconds, which combination of batteries, flexible loads, and generators should respond to changes
- This reduces the need for “must-run” fossil plants
-
Demand response automation
- Smart thermostats, industrial controls, and EV chargers can shift usage slightly during peak times
- Customers barely notice, but the grid sees massive reductions in peak load
-
Predictive maintenance
- Sensors and machine learning identify equipment problems early
- This cuts unexpected outages and downtime—boosting reliability without coal
This is the inverse of the Eddystone approach. Instead of one old plant on permanent life support, you get a distributed, resilient system where no single asset is a bottleneck.
Why Businesses Should Care: Cost, Risk, and Reputation
If you’re running a business, you may think Eddystone and J.H. Campbell are just local stories. They’re not.
They’re a preview of the choices your company—and your grid operator—will face in the next few years.
Cost and risk exposure
Businesses locked into coal-heavy grids face several risks:
- Volatile costs: Fuel price swings, maintenance shocks, and compliance costs
- Policy whiplash: Different administrations can flip energy rules quickly
- Stranded assets: Infrastructure built around coal may become non-competitive before it’s paid off
Companies that start shifting toward clean energy contracts, onsite renewables, and smart energy management cut that exposure.
Reputation and ESG
Customers, investors, and employees are paying attention to where your energy comes from. Propping up uneconomic coal plants undercuts any sustainability narrative.
On the other hand, it’s increasingly credible to say:
“We’re sourcing X% of our load from verified renewable power and using AI-enabled systems to reduce our emissions intensity year over year.”
That’s not greenwashing. It’s operational reality for companies that take green technology seriously.
Practical Steps: How Organizations Can Move Away from Coal
You don’t control federal emergency orders, but you do control how your organization positions itself.
Here are concrete steps that work in practice.
1. Audit your energy profile
Start with clarity:
- What percentage of your load comes from coal-heavy utilities?
- What are your peak demand patterns by season and hour?
- Where are you overpaying due to demand spikes or inflexible loads?
Many companies are surprised when a basic data review shows that 10–20% of their bill is tied to a small number of predictable peak events.
2. Use green technology to cut peak demand
Peak demand is where coal plants often justify their “emergency” role. You can attack that peak directly by:
- Installing battery storage behind the meter to shave demand spikes
- Using AI-enabled building management systems to slightly pre-cool or pre-heat
- Scheduling non-urgent processes (like EV fleet charging or some industrial cycles) outside typical peak windows
Done well, this can lower bills and reduce the need for grid operators to rely on aging plants.
3. Shift procurement toward clean energy
Depending on your size and location, options include:
- Green tariffs with your utility
- Power purchase agreements (PPAs) for solar or wind
- Community solar or shared clean energy programs
The key is to treat this as a financial decision, not just a CSR line item. Clean power contracts often come with price stability over 10–20 years, which is something coal simply can’t match.
4. Integrate AI-driven energy management
If you’re serious about decarbonizing and saving money, AI isn’t a buzzword—it’s a tool.
Look for platforms that can:
- Forecast your site-specific demand
- Recommend or automate load shifting actions
- Optimize when to charge or discharge onsite batteries
- Identify anomalies or waste patterns across facilities
I’ve seen companies achieve 10–30% reductions in peak demand charges within the first year when they combine basic efficiency work with intelligent controls.
Why Phasing Out Coal Is Central to the Green Technology Transition
Keeping Eddystone and J.H. Campbell alive through fake emergency orders is a distraction from where energy is actually going.
Green technology isn’t just about installing rooftop solar or buying some carbon offsets. It’s about rebuilding the entire energy system around cleaner, smarter, more flexible infrastructure—and using AI as the control layer that ties it all together.
The longer we spend extending the life of expensive coal plants, the slower we move toward:
- More reliable grids built around renewables and storage
- Healthier communities freed from legacy pollution
- Businesses with lower, more predictable energy costs
- Cities and industries that can actually hit their climate and ESG targets
If you’re planning for the 2030s, betting on emergency coal extensions isn’t a strategy. Investing in clean energy, smart grids, and AI-driven optimization is.
So the real question isn’t whether Eddystone gets a fourth extension.
The question is: How fast can we build the systems that make plants like Eddystone irrelevant?
And if you’re leading an organization, are you still tied to yesterday’s grid—or already shifting your operations toward the cleaner, smarter one that’s coming next?