Biden Celebrates Shutting Down Coal Plants: “We’re Going to Be Shutting These Plants Down All Across America” — Four Days Before Midterms

On 11/4/2022, President Biden told a room of supporters in Carlsbad, California that “we’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar” — celebrating the closure of coal-fired power plants just four days before the midterm elections. Biden described visiting “the largest old coal plant in America” in Massachusetts and said “no one is building new coal plants because they can’t rely on it.” The remarks sent shockwaves through coal-dependent communities in swing states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Wyoming, where coal industry workers heard the president of the United States celebrating the elimination of their livelihoods during an energy crisis.

”Shutting These Plants Down All Across America”

Biden made the statement during a speech on the CHIPS and Science Act in San Diego. “I was in Massachusetts about a month ago on the site of the largest old coal plant in America,” Biden said. “Guess what? It cost them too much money. They can’t count. No one is building new coal plants because they can’t rely on it, even if they have all the coal guaranteed for the rest of the existence of the plant.”

“So it’s going to become a wind generation,” Biden continued. “And all they’re doing is — it’s going to save them a hell of a lot of money, and they’re using the same transmission line that transmitted the coal-fired electric on.”

Then came the line that defined the clip. “We’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar,” Biden said.

The statement was delivered with evident enthusiasm — Biden was celebrating the transition as an achievement, not acknowledging it as a hardship. There was no mention of the workers who would lose their jobs, the communities that would lose their economic base, or the families whose livelihoods depended on the coal industry. The statement was made in Carlsbad, California — far from any coal-dependent community — to an audience that would cheer the closure of fossil fuel facilities.

The Political Fallout

The timing — four days before the midterm elections — made the statement particularly damaging for Democratic candidates in energy-producing states. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat who represented the coal industry’s most prominent political constituency, issued a rare public rebuke of his own president.

“Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden,” Manchin said. “It seems his positions change depending on the audience and the location he is in.”

The statement also created problems for Democrats in Pennsylvania, where Fetterman was running for Senate, and in Ohio, where coal and natural gas communities were key swing constituencies. Republican candidates immediately incorporated Biden’s words into attack ads, playing the clip of a Democratic president celebrating coal plant closures while energy prices were at their highest levels in years.

The Energy Crisis Context

Biden’s celebration of coal plant closures came during an energy crisis that made the statement especially tone-deaf. Natural gas prices had surged throughout 2022. Electricity costs were rising across the country. Heating oil prices — critical for the Northeast — had reached record levels heading into winter. The European energy crisis, triggered by Russia’s gas supply cuts, had demonstrated the dangers of over-reliance on intermittent renewable energy and premature fossil fuel phase-outs.

In this environment, telling Americans that the government was actively shutting down reliable baseload power plants — without a proven replacement operating at equivalent scale — alarmed energy economists across the political spectrum. Coal still provided approximately 22% of U.S. electricity generation in 2022. Shutting down coal plants “all across America” without equivalent baseload capacity online risked grid reliability problems, electricity price spikes, and potential blackouts during extreme weather events.

”No One Is Building New Coal Plants”

Biden’s observation that “no one is building new coal plants” was factually accurate but the causal chain was more complex than he suggested. Coal plant construction had stopped primarily because natural gas — not wind and solar — had become cheaper for electricity generation. The fracking revolution had made natural gas abundant and affordable, displacing coal in the power generation market on pure economics.

Wind and solar, while growing rapidly, still required natural gas backup generation for periods when the wind wasn’t blowing and the sun wasn’t shining. The “transition” Biden celebrated was not from coal directly to renewables — it was from coal to natural gas with supplemental renewables. Yet the same administration celebrating coal closures was also restricting natural gas development through regulations, lease moratoriums, and pipeline opposition.

The contradiction was fundamental: Biden was celebrating the closure of one fossil fuel (coal) while simultaneously undermining the fossil fuel (natural gas) that was actually replacing it — leaving the energy grid increasingly dependent on intermittent sources that couldn’t provide reliable baseload power.

”They Can’t Count”

Biden’s dismissal of coal economics — “it cost them too much money, they can’t count” — was both inaccurate and insulting to the industry. Coal plant operators could certainly “count” — they were making economic decisions based on market conditions that included environmental regulations, carbon reduction mandates, and competition from subsidized renewables and cheap natural gas.

The suggestion that coal operators couldn’t do basic math was a casual insult to an industry that employed tens of thousands of Americans in some of the country’s most economically vulnerable communities. For workers in Appalachian coal country — where mining had been the economic backbone for generations — hearing the president mock their industry’s business acumen while celebrating its closure was a reminder of the cultural divide between coastal elite governance and working-class America.

The Massachusetts Coal Plant

Biden referenced visiting “the largest old coal plant in America” in Massachusetts. He was referring to the Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Massachusetts, which closed in 2017 and was being redeveloped as a site for offshore wind cable manufacturing and other renewable energy projects.

The Brayton Point conversion was a legitimate example of industrial site reuse. But Biden presented it as a template for national policy without acknowledging the unique circumstances: Massachusetts was a wealthy, liberal state with strong environmental constituencies and no economic dependence on coal. Applying the same approach to West Virginia, Wyoming, Kentucky, or Pennsylvania — where coal communities lacked alternative economic drivers — required a transition plan that Biden’s remarks didn’t mention.

The Transmission Line Claim

Biden noted that the converted coal plant would use “the same transmission line that transmitted the coal-fired electric on” — stumbling over “electricity” but making the point that existing grid infrastructure could serve new energy sources. The observation was generally accurate: decommissioned power plant sites often retained valuable grid connections that renewable projects could utilize.

But transmission compatibility was the least of the challenges facing coal-to-renewable conversions. The larger issues — intermittency, storage capacity, workforce retraining, community economic replacement, and grid reliability — went unmentioned in Biden’s celebratory framing.

Key Takeaways

• Biden declared “we’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar” — four days before midterms, celebrating coal closures during an energy crisis.
• Senator Manchin publicly rebuked Biden: “Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden.”
• Coal still provided approximately 22% of U.S. electricity; shutting down baseload plants without equivalent replacement risked grid reliability and price spikes.
• Biden mocked coal operators — “they can’t count” — insulting tens of thousands of workers in economically vulnerable communities.
• The statement was made in California, far from any coal-dependent community, to an audience that would cheer fossil fuel closures.

Transcript Highlights

The following is transcribed from the video audio (unverified — AI-generated from audio).

• I was in Massachusetts about a month ago on the site of the largest old coal plant in America. It cost them too much money. They can’t count.
• No one is building new coal plants because they can’t rely on it, even if they have all the coal guaranteed.
• So it’s going to become a wind generation.
• They’re using the same transmission line that transmitted the coal-fired electric on.
• We’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar.
• It’s going to save them a hell of a lot of money.

Full transcript: 121 words transcribed via Whisper AI.