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Power Plant Rejected Over Carbon Dioxide For First Time
Steven Mufson, Washington Post
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment yesterday became the first government agency in the United States to cite carbon dioxide emissions as the reason for rejecting an air permit for a proposed coal-fired electricity generating plant, saying that the greenhouse gas threatens public health and the environment.
The decision marks a victory for environmental groups that are fighting proposals for new coal-fired plants around the country. It may be the first of a series of similar state actions inspired by a Supreme Court decision in April that asserted that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide should be considered pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
(19 October 2007)
Related from Associated Press
Coal is the enemy of the human race: Roderick Bremby is a hero edition
Kansas coal plant air permit denied on basis of CO2
David Roberts, Gristmill
More bad news for coal / good news for humanity. This is a particularly delicious morsel, to be savored slowly, like a fine truffle.
For years now, a power company called Sunflower has been pushing to build two 700MW coal-fired power plants in Kansas, backed by the usual happy-horseshit PR about how clean and modern and awesome the plants would be.
Then there was a public comment period, and guess what? The public wasn’t into it. And also, remember when the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA could regulate CO2 as an air pollutant? Turns out that gave some air quality people some ideas.
Or at least one air quality guy. My new hero, Roderick L. Bremby, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, gave Sunflower an answer today: Oh hell no.
(18 October 2007)
At the End of the Climate Policy Tunnel, Will the Light be Out?
Coral Davenport, Congressional Quarterly
America may be speeding toward power shortages and rolling blackouts, according to new studies and a host of experts, as the demand for power outpaces industry’s moves to meet it.
One big reason, experts say, is an age-old investment chiller, regulatory uncertainty, caused by the prospect of controls on greenhouse gas emissions. The industry sees such regulation as inevitable and is concerned about making major capital commitments it could come to regret as new rules take effect.
In the next 10 years, peak U.S. demand for electricity is expected to grow by 17.7 percent, while supply is expected to increase by only 8.4 percent, according to a study released Tuesday by the North American Electric Reliability Corp., or NERC. In some parts of the country, reserve margins of electric capacity are expected to dwindle from a comfortable 10 percent to 15 percent down to two, one, or zero percent, says NERC, an organization federally appointed to monitor and improve the U.S. power supply system.
“The bulk power system is being operated at or near capacity,” said David Nevius, a senior vice president of NERC. “Demand is projected to grow overall more than the resources available to serve it.”
“I’m prepared to see many more blackouts occurring,” said Charles Perrow, a Yale professor whose book, “The Next Catastrophe,” discusses impending shortfalls in power supply. “It’s really going to be a freight train running into disaster,” he said.
…Academic experts, research organizations and power companies point to an array of reasons for the slowing supply, but all agree that impending climate change legislation looms largest. As concerns about global warming grow, politicians and power companies say a law capping emissions of carbon dioxide is an eventual certainty. Such a law would have a tremendous impact on electric utilities, which produce 40 percent of the nation’s CO2 emissions, mostly from facilities powered by coal.
Most major power companies say they are resigned to the ultimate passage of a climate change law, and have shifted from fighting carbon regulation proposals to helping craft them – and to pushing lawmakers to hurry up and enact something as soon as possible.
That’s because, until clear new regulations are passed, electric utilities and the state boards that regulate them are unsure of what kind of new generation to build.
…Across the country, there are more than 100 new coal plants in some stage of planning. But cancellations and delays are piling up. “Many of those will never break ground,” says Dan Reidinger, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, an umbrella group for investor-owned utilities. A study by the group found that this year, 29,937 megawatts of new coal-fired power have been cancelled, compared to 4,750 megawatts of coal-fired power set to go forward. The report noted that uncertainty about the future of greenhouse gas regulation was a key contributor to the slowdown.
“This is the biggest regulatory issue we’ve ever faced,” said Reidinger.
(17 October 2007)
The Changing Climate of Coal
Living on Earth
The world’s appetite for energy seems insatiable and coal, cheap and plentiful, is increasingly being used to generate electricity. In the United States almost half of our electricity comes from burning coal and fast developing China already uses more coal than the United States, the European Union and Japan, combined.
But in addition to generating energy coal plants spew carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases scientists say is warming the planet. Our series “Generating Controversy: The Changing Climate of Coal” looks at the problems and promise of coal, and the potential of new technologies.
Several segments with online video and transcripts:
U.S. Coal Losing Its Glow?
Chinese Coal Rush
Learning In the Shadow of Coal (mountaintop removal in the South)
….and many more
(2007)
