Under an announcement which suggests that this is an “acceleration” of a move to clean energy Vistra has promised to close 6.8 GW of coal plants as soon as possible, and certainly before 2027. Vistra is one of the largest utilities in the US, but its motives are clearly complex. It has already closed some 16 GW of coal since 2016, after its bankruptcy, re-organization and the arrival of Curt Morgan as CEO. However these earlier closures were spread all around its markets in Texas, Ohio, PennSylvania, Illinois and Massachusetts, while many of the new closures are purely in the MISO markets in Illinois and Ohio only. This is because many of these closures are the Vistra board making a…