Colorado Springs keeping the coal-burning Ray D. Nixon power plant open beyond the planned closing date of 2029 could be the costliest option for consumers while undermining the state’s air pollution cleanup, a new Sierra Club-commissioned study says.
With Colorado Springs Utilities considering an unproven small nuclear reactor, natural gas or a coal extension for Nixon’s coal-burning, 207MW Unit 1, consumers and policymakers should know it would be a bad economic and health reversal, the analysis says.
“The study finds that replacing Nixon with a nuclear small modular reactor plant is the most expensive option, by far — nearly double the cost of some other options,” says the study, conducted for Colorado’s Sierra Club by the Applied Economics Clinic, a nonprofit research group that analyzes emissions and climate issues for advocates of environmental justice. “Burning coal at Nixon for the long run is the second-most expensive option.”…