"Kentucky May Accidentally Comply With EPA's Clean Power Plan"

"As coal-fired power plants in the state continue to close, Kentucky closes in on reaching federal clean-air standards it resists."

"Kentucky has consistently opposed federal efforts to impose environmental rules on the state's power plants.  First, lawmakers passed a bill to exempt the state from submitting a plan to meet the proposed air regulations that work against coal. Then it sued the Environmental Protection Agency over the rule.

Now, the state may go from defiance to compliance––without meaning to.

Cheap natural gas is flooding the market as environmental regulations take effect and because upgrading aging plants is cost-prohibitive, coal-fired power plants across Kentucky are shutting down, as they are across the country. In Kentucky alone, more than a quarter of the coal-fired plants have already shut down, or are expected to in the next two years."

Naveena Sadasivam reports for InsideClimate News May 26, 2015.