energy

Sen. Danny Carroll, a Republican from Benton and a self-professed “nuclear geek,” sponsored the legislation. “It's important for us to lay a solid foundation to make sure we don't get left behind,” Carroll said.

Last week’s order from the Kentucky Public Service Commission was the first time in state history an electric utility was required to receive approval to retire fossil fuel generating units. That’s because Kentucky’s Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear recently approved a law making it harder for utilities to retire coal-fired power.

Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities can retire two coal-fired generating units in Jefferson County, and three older-natural gas units. They’ll be replaced with one new natural gas unit in Jefferson County as well as solar and battery storage.

Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities want to retire seven fossil fuel generating units — four coal and three gas units.

Kentucky used $25 million in federal funds to clean up more than 600 abandoned oil and gas wells around the state over the last year.

The Chinese-owned Ebon International proposed a $250 million computing complex on land leased from Kentucky Power at the Big Sandy Generating Station in Lawrence County.

LG&E/KU plan to retire nearly a third of their coal generation by 2028. They want to replace it with a combination of natural gas, solar and battery storage. At the end of the hearing, utility regulators at the Public Service Commission will decide how to implement a new law that makes it harder to retire coal-fired power plants.

Bitiki plans to invest around $25 million in its facilities on the former mine site in Waverly, Kentucky, and is expected to create five jobs as part of the deal. Under the terms, Bitiki would have access to as much as 13 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power tens of thousands of homes.

The typical residential customer would see their monthly bill increase by $35, or about $420 per year, under a proposed rate increase that Kentucky Power filed with state utility regulators in late June.

Eastern Kentucky’s largest power provider told lawmakers Thursday they plan to raise rates next year even as officials acknowledged their customers already face some of the highest electricity bills in the state.