CENTRALIA, Wash. (AP) — Environmental groups and some legislators want the state’s single largest source of greenhouse gases to stop burning coal, and the owner of the Centralia plant says it will do so by 2025.
Whether that timetable needs to be accelerated is the big environmental question this legislative session.
Canada-based TransAlta says it needs time to develop other renewable energy, to decommission the facility and to allow half of its workers to reach retirement age.
Environmentalists say they want certainty that the plant will close. Currently, TransAlta has no legal obligation to stop burning coal.
A Senate proposal that would phase out coal as early as 2020 is still alive, but has been amended to allow TransAlta and environmental groups to negotiate an agreement.
