By Jan Kochis

If you work in agriculture long enough, you learn to judge things by how they perform over time. Not by promises. Not by nostalgia. But by whether they keep working, keep costs predictable, and don’t create more problems than they solve.

That’s how I look at the U.S. Department of Energy’s decision to force Unit 1 at the Craig coal plant to keep running under highly suspect “emergency” orders issued Dec. 30, one day before it was scheduled to begin decommissioning.

From where I stand — literally out in the fields — this doesn’t make much sense.

Coal units like Craig 1 are scheduled to close for a reason. They’re old, expensive to maintain and increasingly don’t perform reliably under stress. That’s not politics — that’s basic math and mechanics. When equipment reaches the end of its useful life, you can patch it up for a while, but the costs go up and the risks accumulate. Similar to a tractor that breaks down every harvest season; you don’t call it “reliable” just because it used to be. You start planning for what comes next, and Craig’s owners have been making those plans for a decade.

The Craig plant is operated and partly owned by Tri-State Generation and Transmission, which provides electricity to member rural electric cooperatives like mine, Mountain View Electric Association. 

Farmers and ranchers in the Mountain View service territory all operate on razor-thin margins. The last thing we need is for energy costs to go up because of petty politics in Washington. Tri-State has worked hard during the past seven years to blaze a path toward more affordable clean energy, and this made-up emergency order is a giant step backward. It will cost an estimated $85 million annually to keep Unit 1 open — a cost ultimately borne by farmers, ranchers and the rural communities served by Tri-State. 

We’re told these emergency orders are about reliability and affordability, but the track record tells a different story. Craig Unit 1 broke down at the end of last year. Where we live, reliability means something works when conditions aren’t perfect. Coal plants don’t have that track record anymore. And when something goes wrong — which happens even more often with older plants — ratepayers end up covering the bill.

For farmers and ranchers, electricity costs matter. We use power to support water, livestock, crop production, storage and modern farm operations, and forcing utilities to keep old coal plants running doesn’t stabilize costs — it adds uncertainty and expense.

On our own property, we host wind turbines. That wasn’t a decision we made lightly. Like most farmers and ranchers, we asked a lot of questions first. Would it interfere with operations? Would it affect the land? Would it actually work?

Years later, the answer is pretty simple: the turbines do what they’re supposed to. They produce energy. They don’t require fuel shipments. They don’t break down every time there’s a heat wave. They coexist with farming and ranching in a way that doesn’t disrupt day-to-day work. And perhaps most importantly, they provide steady added revenue, a god-send in a sector as volatile as agriculture. It’s been our best “cash crop.”

That experience shapes how I view claims about energy reliability. Wind doesn’t solve everything on its own, but I‘ve seen firsthand modern renewable infrastructure is dependable, predictable and compatible with rural life. And it’s significantly more affordable than coal.

There’s also the bigger picture. Hotter summers, longer droughts and more extreme weather affect crops, water availability and planning decisions every year. These conditions are real, and they’re getting worse. Continuing to rely on coal only makes those challenges harder to manage.

What bothers me most is the fabricated use of “emergency” authority to justify all of this. Emergency powers are supposed to be rare and temporary. They’re meant for moments when there truly is no alternative. But alternatives exist. From where I sit, forcing uneconomic coal plants to keep operating past their prime looks more like politics than an honest emergency.

In agriculture, stewardship matters. You don’t exhaust the land or the equipment just because it’s familiar. You plan for the long term. You adapt when conditions change.

Energy policy should work the same way.

Farmers and ranchers and our rural communities need energy systems that make sense for the long haul — ones that work, one we can plan around and ones that don’t leave us paying the price for someone else’s reluctance to move on.

The DOE should rescind this emergency order and let Craig Unit 1 retire as planned. Congress should ensure these emergency powers aren’t abused to prop up failing infrastructure at ratepayers’ expense. And utilities should focus their resources on building the reliable, affordable energy systems rural America actually needs — not prolonging the life of facilities that no longer serve us.

That’s not ideology. It’s experience talking.

Jan Kochis is a farmer and rancher in Elbert County served by Mountain View Electric Cooperative and Director/Treasurer of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.