AI-assisted summaryPresident Donald Trump called for the Cholla Power Plant to be saved from closure soon after a letter from Arizona Republican lawmakers.APS, the plant’s operator, closed the plant due to economic reasons and cheaper, cleaner energy alternatives.The lawmakers’ letter cited job losses and economic hardship due to coal plant closures but didn’t mention environmental or health concerns.A letter sent by 23 Arizona Republican lawmakers might have inspired President Donald Trump’s call to “save” the coal-fired Cholla Power Plant in northeast Arizona from “destruction.”The April 4 letter sent by the statewide House and Senate members to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum asked the federal government to stop the retirement of coal-fired power plants and support the reactivation of those already shut down.Arizona Public Service, the utility that operates the Cholla Power Plant near Joseph City, a few miles west of Holbrook, stopped generating electricity there in March, citing lower-cost, less-polluting options elsewhere. The company said it is evaluating what Trump’s message means for the plant.APS cited “increasing costs that have made the plant uneconomical to operate” and vowed to preserve the site for potential future uses that might include nuclear power. “At this time, APS has already procured reliable and cost-effective generation that will replace the energy previously generated by Cholla Power Plant,” the Phoenix-based company said in a statement sent to The Arizona Republic.The letter from the Arizona Republican legislators cites the devastation that has resulted in northern Arizona from the “war on coal,” including hefty job losses, declining school enrollment and falling local revenues.The two-page letter doesn’t mention emissions, other environmental concerns or the health risks such as respiratory illnesses and lung disease that have been tied to the burning of coal. Nor does it cite the expense of running these plants or the costs of bringing them back online, if that is feasible.Rather, the letter blames the closures on “burdensome federal regulations and unfair tax incentives that increase costs and skew markets away from reliable, baseload energy resources.”That prompted a quip from Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, that “It was not the federal government that turned its back; it was the utilities.”Unemployment in Navajo County, where Joseph City is located, stood at 6.1% in February compared with 4% statewide. The jobless rate in Coconino County, where Page is located, was 4.5%. Page is the approximate location of the Navajo Generating Station, a facility previously operated by utility Salt River Project that also was cited in the Republican letter.The Navajo Generating Station was decommissioned in 2019, the site remediated and the land and remaining plant facilities turned over to the Navajo Nation in March 2024.“SRP will continue to provide reliable, affordable and sustainable power as we work to meet increasing energy demand in one of the fastest-growing regions in the country,” spokeswoman Jennifer Schuricht said in a statement. The company plans to meet future energy needs “through a balanced approach that includes natural gas generation, renewables and energy storage to maintain reliability and affordability while making progress toward our sustainability goals.”Trump didn’t order the Cholla Power Plant to be reopened but instructed Energy Secretary Chris Wright to look for ways to save the Arizona plant. He was flanked by roughly two dozen men wearing protective gear and hard hats, presumably coal miners, in a short speech referencing Cholla that lasted less than half a minute. Trump implied that saving the power plant would allow miners to retain their jobs, though coal no longer is mined in Arizona.APS counts roughly 40 regular employees at Cholla and 15 temporary workers there.”Our focus through this process has been on transitioning employees to other roles within the company or providing support should they choose to retire or pursue other opportunities,” said Jill Hanks, an APS spokeswoman.The Republican letter to Burgum cited the past closures or planned closures of several coal-fired plants in Arizona besides Cholla. These include power-generating units at the Navajo Generating Station near Page as well as the Springerville Generating Station near Springerville, the Coronado Generating Station near St. Johns, the Apache Generating Station in Cochise County and the Four Corners Generating Station, an APS facility in New Mexico.“Coal has powered this state for decades and provided jobs for Arizona families,” said state Rep. David Marshall in a separate statement. He blamed the plant closures on bureaucratic red tape and overregulation. “Now, we have a president and an administration that understands the importance of reliable baseload power and rural communities,” he said. “We’re ready to work with them to turn the lights back on.”Echoing some of the comments made by the White House in a pro-coal executive order, Marshall said the plants are “essential to maintaining grid stability as demand grows from data centers, A …
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