Trump-linked National Coal Council highlights Ohio Valley Electric plants criticized as money-losing for U.S. ratepayers including Kentucky customers

The National Coal Council, an industry group that has highlighted coal power as a public benefit under the Trump administration, is promoting generating units operated by Ohio Valley Electric Corporation, or OVEC, according to a report by Louisville Public Media published July 30, 2026. The promotion includes units at OVEC sites in Madison, Indiana, and Cheshire, Ohio, which the report says have been characterized in other contexts as losing money and therefore imposing costs on electricity customers. In the Louisville Public Media account, the National Coal Council describes the OVEC plants as efficient and economic, arguing that they provide value through reliable generation. The report places that assertion in tension with the plants’ financial performance, noting that the same resources are part of power supply arrangements that ultimately flow through to consumer bills in multiple states, including Kentucky. Kentucky’s connection to the issue, as described in the report, comes through electricity pricing arrangements that include power generated from OVEC facilities. The central dispute in the coverage is not whether the plants run, but whether the cost of operating them and their financial outcomes are justified for ratepayers who pay for electricity service. The report indicates that the coal council’s messaging is aimed at rebutting criticism of coal plants’ economics and broader energy transition pressures. The council’s position is that the plants are performing in ways that merit continued support, and that the facilities should be viewed as economically sound generation rather than as liabilities. The counterpoint raised through the report’s framing is that the plants have been described as not covering their costs, which would shift the economic burden onto customers. The OVEC facilities named in the report are located outside Kentucky, but the practical question for Kentucky ratepayers is how those out-of-state generation costs are reflected in the bills paid inside the commonwealth. The report’s focus on Kentucky customers underscores that regional power markets can transmit financial impacts across state lines even when the physical plant footprint is elsewhere. It was not immediately clear from the Louisville Public Media reporting what specific ratepayer cost figures are attributable to each named unit, or what portion of Kentucky’s bill impacts stem directly from OVEC versus other generation and transmission factors. As a result, the reporting centers on the contrast between the National Coal Council’s efficiency and economic arguments and the characterization of the plants as money-losing in the underlying financial discussion. The next steps, based on the issues raised in the report, are likely to involve closer scrutiny of the contractual and regulatory mechanisms that pass generation costs to customers, including whether rates reflect actual operating performance and whether any policies or filings account for plant-level economics. For customers and policymakers, the central point is accountability, including the documentation used to justify power procurement decisions and the financial assumptions behind rate impacts across states.