And so I think physics prevails. That doesn’t mean that the desire isn’t there. We are not working towards that path. I just think we have to do so in a very responsible way. And so all of this is probably going to take much longer than what politicians and headlines would have you believe. I mean it wasn’t that long ago, 3 years, 4 years ago, they were saying that we were going to be carbon free by 2030 and then it was 2035. And now we have a pathway for the existing fleet to stay until 2039. And if this rule stays around, it essentially means that any new gas plant builds have to have carbon capture and storage, which to me makes it extremely challenged, Jane, for anyone to build a new gas plant. So, it kind of means that we are probably going to rely on the existing fleet and some capacity for much, much longer, but there will certainly be a lot of lawyers that spend time analyzing these bills.
I mean these rules were 1,400 pages long. So, they are very detailed and specific. And I think the industry is still trying to figure out exactly what the exact interpretation is because it gets very specific for each fuel source. But to me, it’s a near death flow to a new gas plant build, which further makes – alright, so how do you expand the grid. You can’t build new gas, nobody is building new coal. Everyone who has tried to build a new nuclear plant had huge, huge cost overruns by 2x or more. So – and the capacity accreditation that we are seeing MISO hand out to wind and solar is 5% of nameplate, right. So, you got to build 20x of whatever wind and solar is to get you got to build 20 gigawatts of solar to get 1 gigawatt of capacity.
I mean that’s – that math is very problematic. So, I don’t think there is any easy answers or solutions here, but we are becoming more and more convinced about the longevity of our business, the profitability of our business and mostly because we are kind of transitioning the company from a business that had a shrinking demand to a business that has a growing demand, and I think that has great benefit to the long-term shareholders of Hallador.
Lucas Pipes: Very helpful. Thank you, Brent. Two follow-ups on this, first, co-firing with natural gas, how much would that cost to make a plant change for that? How long would it take? And then on the back of your thesis that you just articulated, are you looking at acquisitions of other co-fired power plants, be it in MISO or across the nation?
Brent Bilsland: Yes. So, we are still – like I said, we are still evaluating what co-firing the plant would look like. And there is different ways of doing that. So, we are not really ready to come out with a cost estimate, though it is feasible. And then secondly, excuse me, I got interrupted. The second part of your question again, Lucas was what, acquisitions?
Lucas Pipes: Yes.
Brent Bilsland: Yes. I think we are always in the market and we are always having some level of conversation with someone about acquisitions and what that might look like. It’s definitely something that as we talked about on the call, we continue to build out our team of experts and kind of bolster our capabilities to acquire plants, operate plants and increase the overall value of those assets. And I think that’s what we are trying to do. And that’s part of the reason of the RFP with the different data center groups to see if that’s another way that we can add value to the platform that we have.
Lucas Pipes: Brent, I appreciate all of that, all the insights there. Again, best of luck.
Brent Bilsland: Thank you.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] There are no additional questions waiting at this time. So, I will pass the conference back over to Brent Bilsland for closing remarks.
Brent Bilsland: Well, I just want to thank everyone for their time today and their continued interest in Hallador. Thank you.
Operator: That concludes the Hallador Energy first quarter 2024 earnings call. Thank you for your participation. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
