Power company will close five coal plants and add wind and solar energy

(OCTOBER 4, 2019) PacifiCorp is a power company. It provides electricity to many parts of Oregon, California, Washington, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. It has more than 1.8 million customers.

PacifiCorp uses 24 coal plants. They burn coal to make electricity. However, they also make a lot of pollution. This hurts the environment.

PacifiCorp has a new plan. The company will close 5 coal plants in the next 10 years. It will use "clean energy" from wind power and solar power instead. (Solar power comes from the sun.) The company will also add more batteries to store power.

Most people think this is a good change. Some people want even fewer coal plants and more clean energy. Others say that wind and solar power is more expensive. They worry that customers will have to pay more for electricity.

Sources:
“PacifiCorp.” Pacificorp.Com, 2019, www.pacificorp.com. Accessed 4 Oct. 2019.
Sickinger, Ted. “New PacifiCorp Plan Slows Coal Plant Closures, Adds Lots of Wind and Solar.” Oregonlive, 4 Oct. 2019, www.oregonlive.com/business/2019/10/new-pacificorp-plan-slows-coal-plant-closures-adds-lots-of-wind-and-solar.html. Accessed 4 Oct. 2019.
Wikipedia Contributors. “PacifiCorp.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PacifiCorp. Accessed 4 Oct. 2019.

"ESOL News Oregon by Timothy Krause is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. except where noted.