Company: WELPM
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000107815-25-000105
Chunk: 57

Company: WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER CO
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 57
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 control, may result in the assessment of civil or criminal penalties and fines. We continue to assess the potential cost of complying, and to explore different alternatives in order to comply, with these and other environmental regulations.

As a result of these compliance costs and other factors, certain of our coal-fired electric generating facilities have become uneconomical to maintain and operate, which has resulted in these units being retired or converted to an alternative type of fuel. As part of WEC Energy Group's commitment to a cleaner energy future, we have already retired nearly 2,100 MWs of fossil-fueled generation since the beginning of 2018. WEC Energy Group expects to retire approximately 1,200 MWs of additional coal-fired generation by the end of 2031, and plans to replace a portion of the retired capacity by building and owning zero-carbon-emitting renewable and reliable, efficient natural gas generation facilities. We have also started implementing co-firing with natural gas at certain of our coal-fired units and are evaluating the conversion to natural gas.

We are also subject to significant liabilities related to the investigation and remediation of environmental impacts at certain of our current and former facilities and at third-party owned sites. We accrue liabilities and defer costs (recorded as regulatory assets) incurred in connection with our former manufactured gas plant sites. These costs include all costs incurred to date that we expect to recover, management's best estimates of future costs for investigation and remediation and related legal expenses, and are net of amounts recovered (or that may be recovered) from insurance or other third parties. Due to the potential for the imposition of stricter standards and greater regulation in the future, the possibility that other potentially responsible parties may not be willing or financially able to contribute to cleanup costs, a change in conditions or the discovery of additional contamination, our remediation costs could increase, and the timing of our capital and/or operating expenditures in the future may accelerate or could vary from the amounts currently accrued.

Litigation over environmental issues and claims of various types, including property damage, personal injury, common law nuisance, and citizen enforcement of environmental laws and regulations, occurs frequently throughout the United States. This litigation has included claims for damages alleged to have been caused by GHG and other emissions and exposure to regulated substances and/or requests for injunctive relief in connection with such matters. In addition to claims relating to our current facilities, we may also be subject to potential liability in connection with the environmental condition of facilities that we previously owned and operated, regardless of whether the liabilities