pdx: yes, I caught the difference - which train is on a schedule rather than just getting there someday (didn't Kneiling talk about trains getting parked at West Podunk and East Westswitch?).

...coal was biomass...

True, but it's now fossilized. It was biomass many 10's of millions of years ago. The biomass it represents was geologically "sequestered" until we found it and pumped its carbon back into the atmosphere.

"Biomass" properly so called is current-generation: was formed using sunlight in the current era and is burned during the same carbon cycle it was captured in. It was never processed geologically; only biologically.

The coal plants in the PacNW may be shutting down or converting to something else, but for a little while they still need to burn coal. Perhaps tests like the one mentioned for Boardman will help determine what they can be used for afterward and more precisely when they can/will shut down.

I do find it a bit amusing how somebody like PG&E (or PGE - different companies, yes it's confusing) can decide that it's no longer feasible economically or otherwise to keep using a plant (like Centralia or Boardman or Diablo Canyon), and begin the process for its replacement, then get reamed for continuing to use it during the shutdown planning and implementation process. It's a process people, it's not like shut it off tomorrow (unfortunately, SCE's treatment of San Onofre gives that impression - that we can just shut it off without worrying about other details - though they did have a real immediate safety reason for doing that). The power the plants produce has to be replaced - if not by other fossil fuel (natural gas) burning then by (modern) biomass burning, solar, hydro, or whatever, and vastly expanded conservation measures. For that matter, the PacNW is full of volcanoes; where are the geothermal plants that are common around volcanoes in Mexico and Central America (California and Nevada do have several)? So the corporate and/or regulatory decision is made to begin the shutdown and replacement process, but it will certainly take at least a few years to complete it. Welcome to the Real World, rabid (not rational) environmental folks.