Published:
November 20, 2017
Vistra Energy recently announced that its Dallas-based subsidiary, Luminant, would be closing two large coal-fired power plants in Texas, Big Brown in Fairfield and Sandow in Rockdale. This announcement came exactly one week after Vistra announced it would close another coal plant, the Monticello unit near Mount Pleasant.
Taken individually, these retirements might not seem that significant. But viewed collectively, the announcements can be seen as part of an accelerating trend in electricity generation capacity. Simply put, coal is dying off, at least in Texas, and there is not much that can, or should, be done about it.