If you ran a company, would you need the government to tell you what you needed to sell and for how much?

As a free-market economy, our utilities are franchised by each State in which they operate. They are required to pursue the most cost effective energy and make 20 year forecast and plans to do so. These plans are rigorously reviewed and commitments made to ensure the power needs are met.

The President of the United States has many powers based on his primary responsibility; protect the Constitution of the United State. In this capacity, an emergency was declared and the Present decided to override over 10 years of planning to order the continued operation of aged and decrepit coal fired power plants. The reason; national security. How does replacing an obsolete coal fired power plant with new generation challenge the security of the Unit State? Perhaps, the President is making a political statement.

Let’s look at how.

Utilities, no longer own all there generation plants. However, utilities contract to buy the energy they produce.  Utilities pursue cost effective energy. The President’s order will upend their planning and require them to buy the coal plants output, which IS MORE expensive than the energy they are currently purchasing. YES, the coal plants COST more than the power plants that have been built to replace them.

State and utility companies have planned for hundreds of gigawatts of new power plants most of it from solar, wind and battery. These power plants are utility grade; meaning they will be operated in a baseload continuous generation mode.

It is estimated that continuing to operate the obsolete coal plants will cost the US economy over $15 billion/year.

That’s just the current cost.

Consider the US is experiencing some of the largest projected electric growth — over 3% per year through 2024.

So instead of continuing to replace aging and obsolete plants with new technology and more reliable energy generation, WE WON’T BE ABLE TO. Not because it’s not cost effective, not because it’s not more efficient, but because the President wants to believe that PAYING MORE and NOT PLANNING is making us great again.

Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer serving commercial customers in the states of Illinois, and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM Index, Fixed and PriceAssuranceTM.

Realgy owns and operates 11 solar plants in Illinois and is looking to invest in additional locations.

Park District of Highland Park on 20 July 2025 signed up for their 2nd location with Realgy for PV solar installation.

Additional Information:

Trump’s push to keep coal plants running could cost… | Canary Media