The Alaska Miner Spring 2025 30 The explosive growth of AI data centers, the reshoring of industry and the electrification of the economy have sent power demand soaring. This surge in demand — with the potential to double the nation’s power needs by 2050 — is colliding with a grid reliability crisis that deepened during the Biden administration by targeting the coal fleet for closure. According to an analysis from the North American Electric Reliability Corp., the nation’s grid monitor, over the next decade, more than half of the country faces blackout risks due to power capacity shortfalls. This is an energy emergency that the Trump administration has urgently addressed. President Trump’s executive orders bolstering the coal power plant fleet and domestic coal production are a centerpiece of this effort. A de-facto moratorium on the closure of essential coal plants is welcome news in coal country. It’s precisely what electricity regulators, grid operators and industrial energy consumers have sought. The coal fleet is our strategic electricity reserve waiting for this moment. Vastly underused, the fleet can provide far more power than it currently does, and we will need every megawatt of elecRich Nolan: Coal fleet must continue to be expanded Rich Nolan (second from right) visited Alaska for the first time in the fall and toured multiple sites including Usibelli Coal Mine. Nolan was the keynote speaker for the Alaska State Chamber’s Alaska Business Summit on Oct. 9 in Fairbanks.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==