SCOTUS Ruling Could Result in Higher Utilization for Surviving Coal Fired Plants, FBR Capital Says

FBR Capital analyst Benjamin Salisbury said today's Supreme Court ruling that overturned EPA's MATS rule in a 5-4 decision "could result in higher utilization for surviving coal fired plants that can reduce the cost of operating emissions control such as sorbent injection."

That said, the analyst said in the long run "any relief will be muted given utilities have already retired a significant amount of coal-fired generation and have implied this repeal would do little to change course for planned retrofits since billions in investment have been made already."

In addition, "EPA could resurrect MATS in a stronger form, given the “baseline” EPA will observe includes less of the older, high-emission coal-fired plants and current units with more emission control than previously."

Related stocks: Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI), Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU), Alpha Natural (NYSE: ANR), Walter Energy (NYSE: WLT), CONSOL Energy (NYSE: CNX), and Cloud Peak Energy (NYSE: CLD).

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