East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s Spurlock plant near Maysville. (Shepherd Snyder / WEKU)
Policies approved by state lawmakers could raise electricity costs for Kentucky residents by billions of dollars by 2050.
That’s the finding of a 65-page report released in December by the Kentucky Resources Council, Earthjustice, Mountain Association and Metropolitan Housing Coalition.
In an interview on Eastern Standard, Kentucky Resources Council attorney Byron Gary said laws passed in 2023 make it harder for utilities to retire fossil fuel power sources like coal and natural gas.
He said that policy exposes Kentucky electricity customers to volatile pricing.
“Things like the possibility of prices going through the roof, as they did say in the post covid or after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia,” he said, “we saw gas prices go through the roof, and, relatedly, saw the cost of electricity go through the roof.”
Gary also said the policy increases pollution risks for Kentucky residents.
“And aside from those greenhouse gas emissions, each of these fossil fuel plants produces a great amount of what we call more traditional pollutants, things like smog and soot and particulate matter and sulfur dioxide and things like that,” he said. “So it would have a big impact, particularly on those who live nearby those power plants.”
The report recommends shifting to lower-cost, cleaner energy sources such as wind, solar and battery storage.
Listeners can hear more of the discussion with Byron Gary on Eastern Standard on WEKU.
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