Arizona Communities Bank on Trump's move for coal to make sure they are not forgotten

Joseph City, Ariz. – Brantley Baird never misses the chance to speak history because his great -grandmother put the city of Snowflake, long before Arizona was granted statehood, right down to stories about riding to the school building in front of the school building.

His family worked in the country and increased the cattle, watched the railroad and went and cattle imperies rose and fell. Then came the coal-fired power plants, which were built in North Arizona and northwest of New Mexico to reach the progress in distant western cities.

The plants would play their own role in the history of the region and could be at the center of their uncertain future.

The Cholla power plant is located directly down the street, from which Baird, 88, built a museum to present covered cars, weathered agricultural equipment and other remains on border days. For years, the facility carried the local economy and provided jobs and tax revenue for the non -legal community of Joseph City, its schools and neighboring cities, but now the vapors have dissolved from their stacks.

Nowadays the change is in the air. Cholla is the latest in a long series of US carbon power plants that can retire in March. Arizona's public service said it had become too expensive due to strict environmental regulations to operate. The mandates aimed to resume in coal burning companies that scientists have long seen as important contributors for the warming of the planet.

Last month, President Donald Trump turned the course up and signed new executive orders to restore the “beautiful, clean coal” to the top of the US energy supply. He asked his administration to find paths to reopen Cholla and delay the planned retirement. As part of his advancement on energy independence, Trump has obliged to open up domestic sources – including coal – to fuel a new wave of domestic production and technology, namely innovations in artificial intelligence.

In the west, in which the vision sometimes crashes against reality, Baird and many of his neighbors were encouraged that Trump put Cholla in the spotlight, but there is some skepticism about what the supply companies will do with the plants.

“So many jobs, so much help for our school district, precisely here that we come out of it, we hope that it will come back,” said Baird, who used to work in Cholla and served Joseph City School Board.

But he and others wonder if it is too late for coal.

Just a few weeks before Trump announced his plans, the US Energy Information Management forecast an increase in the retirement of coal production in 2025 compared to the previous year.

The largest work on this list is the 1,800 megawatt intermountain power project in Utah. It is replaced by a plant that can burn natural gas and hydrogen.

Supply companies that want to increase capacity are not sure whether Trump's commands will lead them back into coal.

“I think it is certainly to say that the systems that are planned or are planned will probably move in this direction for several reasons,” said Todd Snitchler, CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association, which represents the power plant owner. “One of them is very difficult to plan multimillion or billion dollar investments for ecological retrofitting and other things on a legislative approach.”

Last month, the Republicans sent a letter to US Interior Minister Doug Burgum in Arizona's legislature, warning that the economic consequences from the closure of the 2019 Navajo generation station are still susceptible. The stacks were torn down and the mine that delivered the work closed.

The operations ended in the San Juan generation station in the northwest of New Mexico in 2022.

In the middle, Joseph City and other municipalities are located in which life revolves around a power plant. The residents hope that Trump can contribute to keeping them in energy. From Joseph City to Springerville, they have prepared to take on important hits to the job market, tax roles and school enrollment. The options are slim in the counties Apache and Navajo – two of the Arizona poorest.

Managers of pension companies recently informed the regulatory authorities of Arizona that the reopening of Cholla would be expensive for customers and that they are planning to advance renewable energies. The system's infrastructure would be preserved as a possible location for future nuclear or gas-fired electricity generation, and the Senderville generation station could be implemented as soon as the last units retired in 2032.

The supply company, which operates the Coronado generation station, which is fueled with coal, only 30 miles (48 kilometers) in St. Johns, also intends to convert into natural gas.

In Springerville, the idea of ​​spoiling the surrounding grass landscapes and old volcanic fields with 112 wind turbines – with dogs that are larger than the Space needle from Seattle – outrage. Banner and posters who protest the proposal are plastered in the city.

“You all know that this will not work, that we cannot rely on wind and solar,” said Doug Henderson, a pensioner for Springerville who is now sitting in the city council. He says that the coal generation can be asked, regardless of whether there is sunshine or wind.

The mayor of Springerville, Shelly Reidhead, and others are fighting to prevent the wind farm and says that they will expose the coal -fired power plants to Springerville more work and to preserve the surrounding landscape.

“We also survive through tourism and people don't want to come here and look at it,” said Reidhead about the turbines.

The western drug and general store is decorated with tiny American flags that are stopped outside. A sign advertises canned goods articles, but the local jokes that they can get everything here – from slippers to guns.

Andrea Hobson works in the register and knows everyone by name. It moved from California to Springerville about 20 years ago and says it is difficult to imagine that the community without the power plant.

“It would be a ghost city. It really would,” she said. “This is the heart of this city.”

The leaders of Springerville lost their sleep and find out which industries could fill the gap. Around 350 jobs, dozens of contract employees and the companies supported by them – come from the general store and the new frozen yogurt shop to the hospital and the local churches.

Some workers go to the Springerville plant for an hour every day, which means that other communities will also lose, said Randel Penrod, a former crew manager of the work. With retirement, the plant cut its workforce.

Henderson, the member of the Springerville city council, fears that it could take years to enable a new work.

Reidhead is more hopeful after taking on members of the Arizona congress delegation and the executives in Arizonas. She believes that the Trump administration can reduce “bureaucracy” and get new plants up and running. The development of artificial intelligence and its thirst for power gives the mission a feeling of urgency.

“I think our politicians at the state level recognized with the need for Ki's power that if we do not come on board and will soon come on board, we were left behind,” she said.

Some energy analysts say that Trump's support for coal is mostly symbolic because the supply companies hold the keys. Others say that the diversification of energy sources is a must, since the United States sees an increase in electricity requirements for the first time in decades.

“AI may be artificial, but the current it needs is very real and in some regions coal is still the light when other sources flash,” said Scott Segal, partner of the Bracewell LLP resident in Washington.

He said that electricity markets do not take care of politics – just reliability, affordability and sustainability.

Outside of Joseph City, the crews build one of the largest solar and battery storage projects in Arizona. The solar collectors are installed on rented private lands, including Baird's extensive ranch.

Although Baird is not a fan of all the dust, he knows that the emergence of Solar is just another of many changes he has seen in his life – and he has no idea what the next 100 years could look like.

“Hell, who knows?” he said. “You know when it matters exactly, we will only wait and see.”

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The author of the Associated Press Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.