On May 31, the New York Times published an article that recognizes the impressive achievements of Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program (ELP) in reducing the uneconomic operation of coal units around the country, specifically referencing wins in Louisiana and Michigan. Concurrently, ELP attorneys negotiated yet another win against uneconomic coal in Louisiana.
In 2019, Sierra Club realized that the uneconomic operation of coal plants–where a plant operates even when prevailing market prices are too low to cover its costs–was propping up a dying industry and foisting those costs on captive ratepayers. This dirty and expensive practice remained unchecked for years until Sierra Club became the first organization to challenge it, arguing against Indiana Michigan Power Company’s self-scheduling of its coal units. Any increases in consumer rates resulting from fuel cost increases were historically approved with little or no analysis, but ELP attorneys consistently raised the uneconomic self-scheduling issue, while educating the Commission and other advocates. Now, the Attorney General and others have joined alongside ELP attorneys in litigation before the Michigan PSC and in other venues. Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office credited Sierra Club’s leadership with this theory of change:
Building off previous work in Louisiana, Sierra Club attorneys Josh Smith and Tony Mendoza negotiated a settlement with Cleco that would require the utility to operate its coal and pet coke units economically except when a specific reliability need for self-scheduling is identified and documented.
Sierra Club’s Louisiana efforts are led by Senior Attorneys Joshua Smith and Tony Mendoza and in-house expert Jeremy Fisher, and assisted by Legal Assistant Ashley Soliman. Sierra Club’s work on self-scheduling in energy markets has been led by ELP attorneys Kristin Henry, Elena Saxonhouse, Casey Roberts, Rose Monahan, Laurie Williams, Megan Wachspress, Greg Wannier, and Sunil Bector.