owners of CCPP are actually thinking of shutting down their plants for good!

You know, I have trouble believing this. I could understand utilities being reluctant to invest in new gas-fired plants as they know the capacity factor will be less than required. But existing plants should used as long as it's cash-flow positive, and I don't see that it's not the case often enough to keep the plants spinning.

Do you have public data on this? Is this just political posturing by the utilities?

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes