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A coalition of three Arizona utility companies has elected to stop burning coal at the Springerville Generating Station in southeast Arizona.

The coal-fired power plant is transitioning to natural gas, despite scientists warning against relying on gas as a long-term source of energy. A new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said maintenance costs at Springerville are just one of the reasons the plant is no longer viable.

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Dennis Wamsted, energy analyst at the institute, said it has outlived its usefulness.

"Coal as a resource may have been that in the past, and it is no longer that going forward," Wamsted contended. "It is too expensive. It is too unreliable and it is too polluting to rely on going forward."

The Springerville closure is the latest in a series of coal plants to close. Four others in the Mountain West were shut down last year.

Other plants in the West are also transitioning to natural gas but Wamsted warned cost, availability and infrastructure demands do not make it a viable option in the future. He argued there is a more obvious energy source available in the Sonoran Desert.

"The reality is that in a place like Arizona, Arizona's utilities should be building solar as fast as they possibly can," Wamsted urged. "It is the cheapest resource by far. Arizona is by far the most solar-radiant state in the U.S. and can generate huge amounts of solar power."

Wamsted added a pro-coal political climate makes transitioning away from it more difficult. The Trump administration has said it is trying to make the U.S. more energy independent by reinvesting in coal.