The state senate signed off on a landmark bill today to phase out coal at TransAlta's Centralia power plant. The coal-powered plant has been identified as the number one single point source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state. The bill was tweaked by the house—limiting TransAlta's get out of jail free card on future gas plant emissions— earlier this month after the senate first passed the bill in March . The bill phases out coal at the plant by 2025 and provides a $55 million economic development fund paid for by the company. The plant has about 300 employees.

Though the bill started out with far more ambitious goals, phasing coal out by 2015 and/or 2020 and making the company provide a $94 million community transition fund—environmentalists are cheering the news.

In an effusive press release quoting a handful of different environmental leaders about Washington State's "coal free future," Jessica Finn Coven at Climate Solutions says:

“The Centralia transition is a powerful model of what works: business, labor, conservation groups and communities working together to end our dependence on fossil fuels and create a brighter clean energy future.”

She's right about the group effort. Indeed, a turning point to close the coal plant came when the community realized the legislation (and the fund) were in their best interest, rather than just letting the company bail on its own terms.