This is Part III of the latest contribution from Mr. William Kay. His essay is long, well documented, a bit complicated and covers more tie-in subjects than you normally see, so I asked him if I could post the entire essay in installments. He has agreed. I wish to post his essay in this way because I believe it will give everyone more time to dwell on the subject. The story of coal is deep….and not because it is under the ground. You will find this more than interesting, but remember…..”There is no such thing as a conspiracy!” Rich Kozlovich
A Brief History of the War on American Coal-Fired Electricity
Coal is the USA’s most abundant fuel. The USA possesses the world’s largest coal deposits. Coal is a cornerstone of the US economy. Coal is a major American export. The American coal industry has 90,000 direct employees and ten times as many indirect ones. Until 2009 coal-fired power plants generated most of America’s electricity. Suppressing American coal means suppressing America.
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) the US has “demonstrated” coal reserves of 440 billion tonnes. The National Academy of Science guestimates US coal reserves at 1,500 billion tonnes. Other estimates run as high as 4,000 billion tonnes.
US coal production averages 1 billion tonnes per year.
America’s remaining 580 coal-fired power plants house 1,400 generators. 73% of these plants are over 30 years old. They are subjected to a merciless enviro-regulatory and enviro-activist assault. The construction of new coal-fired plants is effectively becoming criminalized.
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) the US has “demonstrated” coal reserves of 440 billion tonnes. The National Academy of Science guestimates US coal reserves at 1,500 billion tonnes. Other estimates run as high as 4,000 billion tonnes.
US coal production averages 1 billion tonnes per year.
America’s remaining 580 coal-fired power plants house 1,400 generators. 73% of these plants are over 30 years old. They are subjected to a merciless enviro-regulatory and enviro-activist assault. The construction of new coal-fired plants is effectively becoming criminalized.
*
This historical sketch emphasises the War on Coal’s air pollution campaign, which targets coal-fired electrical generation. There is a parallel ground campaign targeting coal mining.
Environmentalist jeremiads about coal mines scarring landscapes and scaring wildlife betray a politically motivated aesthetic paradigm. Mother Nature creates craters, carves canyons, and readily dislocates and dispatches biota. Despite its romantic irrationality, the coal warriors’ ground campaign has succeeded in placing valuable coal deposits off limits, hobbling coal mining operations and mandating expensive and unnecessary land reclamations.
Environmentalist jeremiads about coal mines scarring landscapes and scaring wildlife betray a politically motivated aesthetic paradigm. Mother Nature creates craters, carves canyons, and readily dislocates and dispatches biota. Despite its romantic irrationality, the coal warriors’ ground campaign has succeeded in placing valuable coal deposits off limits, hobbling coal mining operations and mandating expensive and unnecessary land reclamations.
*
The first offensive against coal-fired power ran from 1978 to the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. During this offensive, while mention was made of Global Warming, soot pollution, etc, the cause celebre was Acid Rain.
While enviro-sceptics dub Acid Rain “the Global Warming of the 1980s,” in fact Global Warming and Acid Rain are both 19th century hypotheses re-discovered and hyped in the late 1970s.
The New York Times, in the late 1970s, began accusing mid-western coal-fired power plants of raining acid upon precious New England forests.
The poster child of acid-ruined forests was a wretched stand of spruce on Camel Hump Mountain, Vermont. ABC Television ran a lengthy hysterical national news piece about Camel Hump. (This news piece blamed Acid Rain for the premature deaths of 50,000 American citizens per year.) Journalists following up the ABC story were surprised to find this tragic stand of spruce engulfed by a thriving forest. Further analysis revealed the celebrity spruces to have been irreparably damaged by a rare localized drought.
America’s Acid Rain crusade differed slightly from Europe’s by its emphasis on alleged damage to lakes, especially lakes in New York’s Adirondacks. In 1980 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Academy of Sciences issued alarming proclamations about dramatic increases in the number of acidified lakes and the degree of these lakes’ acidity. The EPA arbitrarily deemed pH levels below 5 as aberrant; ignoring glacial evidence of natural pH levels as low as 4.2.
(Acidity is measured on a 14-point power of Hydrogen – “pH” – scale. The lower the pH, the higher is the acidity. Note: “Acid Rain” is a misnomer as dissolved CO2 renders all rain acidic. Also note: Apple juice is 16 times more acidic than the worst Acid Rain.)
Acid Rain alarmists initially focussed on anthropogenic nitric and sulphuric acidity but soon dropped nitric acidity after it became obvious that rain-borne nitrogen is readily lapped up by plants. While sulphur is also a vital plant nutrient, there can be surplus sulphur dioxide (SO2) in rain, and this does trickle through watersheds into lakes.
In 1980 President Carter endorsed a report from his Council on Environmental Quality christening Acid Rain a grave crisis. In the same year, the EPA launched its National Acid Precipitation Assessment Project (NAPAP) with a $10 million budget. NAPAP morphed into a ten-year $550 million project. NAPAP endures as the most exhaustive scientific analysis of Acid Rain.
A 1984 NAPAP report identified a meagre 630 acidic lakes whose combined surface equalled 0.02% of total American lake surface area. Most acidic lakes were in Florida, an area unaffected by coal emissions.
A 1987 NAPAP report doubted any connection between coal emissions and Acid Rain damage. This set off an enviro-tempest culminating in the firing of NAPAP’s Director. His replacement was ordered to rewrite the report.
NAPAP’s final report (1990) concluded:
While enviro-sceptics dub Acid Rain “the Global Warming of the 1980s,” in fact Global Warming and Acid Rain are both 19th century hypotheses re-discovered and hyped in the late 1970s.
The New York Times, in the late 1970s, began accusing mid-western coal-fired power plants of raining acid upon precious New England forests.
The poster child of acid-ruined forests was a wretched stand of spruce on Camel Hump Mountain, Vermont. ABC Television ran a lengthy hysterical national news piece about Camel Hump. (This news piece blamed Acid Rain for the premature deaths of 50,000 American citizens per year.) Journalists following up the ABC story were surprised to find this tragic stand of spruce engulfed by a thriving forest. Further analysis revealed the celebrity spruces to have been irreparably damaged by a rare localized drought.
America’s Acid Rain crusade differed slightly from Europe’s by its emphasis on alleged damage to lakes, especially lakes in New York’s Adirondacks. In 1980 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Academy of Sciences issued alarming proclamations about dramatic increases in the number of acidified lakes and the degree of these lakes’ acidity. The EPA arbitrarily deemed pH levels below 5 as aberrant; ignoring glacial evidence of natural pH levels as low as 4.2.
(Acidity is measured on a 14-point power of Hydrogen – “pH” – scale. The lower the pH, the higher is the acidity. Note: “Acid Rain” is a misnomer as dissolved CO2 renders all rain acidic. Also note: Apple juice is 16 times more acidic than the worst Acid Rain.)
Acid Rain alarmists initially focussed on anthropogenic nitric and sulphuric acidity but soon dropped nitric acidity after it became obvious that rain-borne nitrogen is readily lapped up by plants. While sulphur is also a vital plant nutrient, there can be surplus sulphur dioxide (SO2) in rain, and this does trickle through watersheds into lakes.
In 1980 President Carter endorsed a report from his Council on Environmental Quality christening Acid Rain a grave crisis. In the same year, the EPA launched its National Acid Precipitation Assessment Project (NAPAP) with a $10 million budget. NAPAP morphed into a ten-year $550 million project. NAPAP endures as the most exhaustive scientific analysis of Acid Rain.
A 1984 NAPAP report identified a meagre 630 acidic lakes whose combined surface equalled 0.02% of total American lake surface area. Most acidic lakes were in Florida, an area unaffected by coal emissions.
A 1987 NAPAP report doubted any connection between coal emissions and Acid Rain damage. This set off an enviro-tempest culminating in the firing of NAPAP’s Director. His replacement was ordered to rewrite the report.
NAPAP’s final report (1990) concluded:
- Acid Rain does not harm human health.
- Acid Rain benefits agriculture. (Several European and North American studies likewise concluded sulphur-loaded rain improves crop yield and protein content).
- Acid Rain has not harmed forests. The at-risk trees – high altitude East Coast spruces – represent less than 1% of North American forest cover, and even here Acid Rain damage is dubious. Between 1952 and 1987, forests of the US Northeast grew by 78%.
- Four percent of US lakes were acidic. One quarter of these lakes were naturally acidic. The rest had been “somewhat influenced” by human activity. All acidic lakes could be quickly de-acidified by sprinkling lime into them. The cost of a national liming program would be $750,000.
A lake’s acidity is determined by the bedrock beneath, and human land-use of a lake’s environs. Run-off from surrounding land contributes 90% of lake water. Precipitation onto a lake contributes 10%. If rocks and flora around a lake are alkaline, then the lake will have low acidity and abundant aquatic life.
Fossils prove Adirondack lakes were historically acidic due to run-off through peat and pine and due to the bedrock’s low limestone content. Indians knew Adirondack lakes were fish poor. Settlers tried and failed to stock these lakes with fish. Then 19th century lumbering and slash-and-burn agriculture covered watersheds with ash. Run-off through this alkaline surface reduced lake acidity and fish thrived. 20th century conservation programs rejuvenated the forests and re-acidified the lakes.
The release of NAPAP’s final report was delayed until after the passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Politicians did not want to disturb the delicate consensus they had assembled around SO2 emission cuts. Senators skimmed the NAPAP report for an hour. The House of Representatives never looked at it at all. The Clean Air Act Amendments mandated 10 million tonnes per annum of SO2 emission cuts by 2000 at a projected cost to industry of $5 billion.
SO2 emission reductions were achieved by power companies’ installing expensive “scrubbers” and other technologies to capture sulphur from coal. Greater reductions were achieved by switching to low-sulphur lignite coals. This unintended consequence caused a boom in lignite mining, particularly in Wyoming, which had not been a major coal producer. Now Wyoming’s lignite mines account for 40% of US coal production. Seventy-five coal trains, each 130 cars long, leave Wyoming’s Powder River Basin every day. Powder River coal fuels a fifth of US electricity.
SO2 emission reduction targets were achieved ahead of schedule, but environmentalists were flummoxed because coal-fired electrical generation had not been curtailed – albeit it was made less efficient and more expensive.
Fossils prove Adirondack lakes were historically acidic due to run-off through peat and pine and due to the bedrock’s low limestone content. Indians knew Adirondack lakes were fish poor. Settlers tried and failed to stock these lakes with fish. Then 19th century lumbering and slash-and-burn agriculture covered watersheds with ash. Run-off through this alkaline surface reduced lake acidity and fish thrived. 20th century conservation programs rejuvenated the forests and re-acidified the lakes.
The release of NAPAP’s final report was delayed until after the passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Politicians did not want to disturb the delicate consensus they had assembled around SO2 emission cuts. Senators skimmed the NAPAP report for an hour. The House of Representatives never looked at it at all. The Clean Air Act Amendments mandated 10 million tonnes per annum of SO2 emission cuts by 2000 at a projected cost to industry of $5 billion.
SO2 emission reductions were achieved by power companies’ installing expensive “scrubbers” and other technologies to capture sulphur from coal. Greater reductions were achieved by switching to low-sulphur lignite coals. This unintended consequence caused a boom in lignite mining, particularly in Wyoming, which had not been a major coal producer. Now Wyoming’s lignite mines account for 40% of US coal production. Seventy-five coal trains, each 130 cars long, leave Wyoming’s Powder River Basin every day. Powder River coal fuels a fifth of US electricity.
SO2 emission reduction targets were achieved ahead of schedule, but environmentalists were flummoxed because coal-fired electrical generation had not been curtailed – albeit it was made less efficient and more expensive.
*
After a mid-1990s lull, a second offensive against coal-fired power was mounted, this time framed mainly as a struggle against coal’s CO2 emissions and their purported exacerbation of Global Warming.
As for Global Warming science:
As for Global Warming science:
- Earth’s surface temperature and Earth’s atmospheric CO2 concentrations have varied over the ages with little correlation betwixt the two. There is no compelling empirical evidence supporting the proposition that increasing CO2 levels causes warming.
- As airborne CO2 is essential for plant life, rising CO2 levels are preferable to declining levels.
- Over the eons Earth has at times been much warmer and much colder than at present. Warm times are periods of abundance. Cold times are hard times. Warming is a blessing.
- There has been no appreciable Global Warming since 1998 despite rising CO2 levels and in diametric contradiction of predictions made by leading Global Warming advocates.
While Global Warmers initially targeted all hydrocarbon fuels, primarily petroleum, by the mid-1980s their focus settled on coal. In the 1990s natural gas firms (BP, Shell, Enron, et al.) boarded the Global Warming bandwagon to advertise their wares as a coal substitute. Natural gas emits half the CO2 per unit of electricity than does coal; hence, natural gas lobbyists argued their product was “climate-friendly.”
*
A narrative has emerged wherein natural gas’s surpassing of coal as America’s premier electricity-generating fuel resulted from shale gas undercutting coal in a fair market contest. This is propaganda.
Here are some dates and facts tracing the arc of gas-fired electricity’s rise:
In the first decade of the 21st century 81% of the generating capacity added to America’s electrical infrastructure consisted of natural-gas-fired power plants. Nearly all these plants were built pre-2008. In fact, most of America’s natural-gas-fired fleet entered service between 1998 and 2003.
Commercial power plants are not impulse purchases; years pass between their conception and construction. The 1998-2003 flurry of gas plant construction resulted from decisions made 1996-99ish. The starting gunshot for the “dash for gas” was Clinton’s 1996 re-election.
(On September 18, 1996 Clinton proved his green bona fides by decreeing the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, thereby enclosing 1.9 million acres of Utah. The US Geological Survey estimates this area holds 30 billion tonnes of minable coal. Clinton’s declaration nixed Andelex Coal’s shovel-ready designs on a multi-billion tonne deposit of high-volatile, low-sulphur coal. This mine would have employed 1,000 Utahans. Congress, supported by Utah Democrats, had blocked efforts to turn this area into a park. Clinton made his decree from the safety of Arizona after giving Utah’s Governor 24 hours’ notice. Utahans wore black arm bands after the declaration, and in November they voted Republican by a 21% margin. Clinton, with enviro-movement support, waltzed back into the White House.)
Shale gas, accessed through horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, accounted for a tiny portion of US gas production in 1990. This portion rose to 23% by 2010.
Between 1990 and 2010, total US gas production grew from 18 trillion to 22.5 trillion cubic feet, the main jump occurring post-2005.
A February 2008 New York Times article (Utilities Turn from Coal to Gas) noted utilities were switching to natural gas because environmentalists were stymieing coal plant construction. This article added that major banks were discouraging investment in coal. In early 2009 the Economist (The Writing on the Wall) confirmed US utilities were caving to political pressure and abandoning coal.
US natural gas prices began collapsing in late 2008. The price of 1,000 cubic feet of gas fell from $13 in June 2008 to $3 in July 2009.
In 2009 coal’s share of US electrical generation fell below 50%.
In 2010 coal generated 45% of electricity, natural gas 24%, nuclear 20%, renewables 10%, and oil 1%.
By 2011 coal held a 41% market share.
By April 2012 American electricity came 32% from natural gas and 32% from coal.
Natural gas-fired plants’ combined capacity is now 390,000 MW. Coal’s combined capacity is 300,000 MW. (America’s total generating capacity is 1,050,000 MW.)
Thus the dash for gas was over before the shale gas revolution began. The shale gas revolution would not have been possible if the gas-fired plants had not been pre-built and waiting to receive the shale gas. Most importantly, the “market triumph of gas” narrative ignores the War on Coal despite the fact that the critical years of gas’s ascendancy (2007-2012) also mark the climax of the anti-coal crusade.
Here are some dates and facts tracing the arc of gas-fired electricity’s rise:
In the first decade of the 21st century 81% of the generating capacity added to America’s electrical infrastructure consisted of natural-gas-fired power plants. Nearly all these plants were built pre-2008. In fact, most of America’s natural-gas-fired fleet entered service between 1998 and 2003.
Commercial power plants are not impulse purchases; years pass between their conception and construction. The 1998-2003 flurry of gas plant construction resulted from decisions made 1996-99ish. The starting gunshot for the “dash for gas” was Clinton’s 1996 re-election.
(On September 18, 1996 Clinton proved his green bona fides by decreeing the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, thereby enclosing 1.9 million acres of Utah. The US Geological Survey estimates this area holds 30 billion tonnes of minable coal. Clinton’s declaration nixed Andelex Coal’s shovel-ready designs on a multi-billion tonne deposit of high-volatile, low-sulphur coal. This mine would have employed 1,000 Utahans. Congress, supported by Utah Democrats, had blocked efforts to turn this area into a park. Clinton made his decree from the safety of Arizona after giving Utah’s Governor 24 hours’ notice. Utahans wore black arm bands after the declaration, and in November they voted Republican by a 21% margin. Clinton, with enviro-movement support, waltzed back into the White House.)
Shale gas, accessed through horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, accounted for a tiny portion of US gas production in 1990. This portion rose to 23% by 2010.
Between 1990 and 2010, total US gas production grew from 18 trillion to 22.5 trillion cubic feet, the main jump occurring post-2005.
A February 2008 New York Times article (Utilities Turn from Coal to Gas) noted utilities were switching to natural gas because environmentalists were stymieing coal plant construction. This article added that major banks were discouraging investment in coal. In early 2009 the Economist (The Writing on the Wall) confirmed US utilities were caving to political pressure and abandoning coal.
US natural gas prices began collapsing in late 2008. The price of 1,000 cubic feet of gas fell from $13 in June 2008 to $3 in July 2009.
In 2009 coal’s share of US electrical generation fell below 50%.
In 2010 coal generated 45% of electricity, natural gas 24%, nuclear 20%, renewables 10%, and oil 1%.
By 2011 coal held a 41% market share.
By April 2012 American electricity came 32% from natural gas and 32% from coal.
Natural gas-fired plants’ combined capacity is now 390,000 MW. Coal’s combined capacity is 300,000 MW. (America’s total generating capacity is 1,050,000 MW.)
Thus the dash for gas was over before the shale gas revolution began. The shale gas revolution would not have been possible if the gas-fired plants had not been pre-built and waiting to receive the shale gas. Most importantly, the “market triumph of gas” narrative ignores the War on Coal despite the fact that the critical years of gas’s ascendancy (2007-2012) also mark the climax of the anti-coal crusade.
*
Circa 2001 the EPA redoubled efforts to suppress coal-fired power mainly by emphasizing coal’s alleged “toxic,” primarily mercury, emissions.
The EPA’s 2004 proposed mercury emission standards for coal-fired plants engendered much litigation and political wrangling. Also in 2004 the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and National Resources Defence Council (NRDC) launched a coordinated blitz about mercury pollution.
In 2005 the EPA sought to extend Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rules to mercury and other metal emissions from all large boilers and furnaces.
As for the toxicology of mercury from coal:
The EPA’s 2004 proposed mercury emission standards for coal-fired plants engendered much litigation and political wrangling. Also in 2004 the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and National Resources Defence Council (NRDC) launched a coordinated blitz about mercury pollution.
In 2005 the EPA sought to extend Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rules to mercury and other metal emissions from all large boilers and furnaces.
As for the toxicology of mercury from coal:
- Mercury is a ubiquitous natural element. Ketchup and barbeque sauces contain 50 times the “environmentally safe” concentrations of mercury.
- Health risks arise when methylmercury, synthesized by aquatic bacteria, accumulates in fish and whales. Humans eating inordinate amounts of such animals risk mercury poisoning (hydrargyria). This danger is mitigated by the pervasive presence of the methylmercury blocker selenium in fish. Seychelles Islanders eat fish twice a day for their entire lives without succumbing to hydrargyria.
- Epidemics of mercury pollution appear in computer simulations concocted by enviro-scientists but not in public health records. Hospitals are not crammed with hydrargyria sufferers.
- Faroe Islanders display detectable, yet contentious, evidence of mercury poisoning. (The Faroe Islands, situated between Iceland and Scotland, are home to 40,000 people.) Whale is a Faroe Islander staple. Whales are low in selenium, high in methylmercury. Faroe Islanders have mercury concentrations 350 times higher than average Americans. International officials have asked them to stop eating whales, but the Faroese do not think this is necessary.
- The international precautionary level for mercury in humans, 58 parts per billion (ppb), comes from the Faroe Islands studies. If those studies are properly adjusted for the presence of other chemicals, the level would be 71 ppb.
- A 1999 Centre for Disease Control study sampled 1,709 US women of childbearing age. All had mercury levels in the 1 to 21 ppb range; none were symptomatic.
- The EPA arbitrary arrived at its “reference dose” by dividing the Faroe Islands study level by 10, thus yielding an uber-precautionary level of 5.8 ppb.
- Alarms were sounded after a 2008 study of Floridians revealed mercury concentrations as high as 25 ppb. However, a study of 550-year-old mummies from Alaska revealed concentrations 5 times that level. Similarly, a study of tuna conducted between 1972 and 1998 showed declining mercury levels.
- The EPA’s main worry is for pregnant women who subsist on freshwater fish – a mythical social cohort. After investigating the matter for a quarter century, the EPA has yet to come up with a single case of a baby being developmentally disabled by mercury pollution.
- American coal-fired power plants are responsible for 3% of the mercury floating in American skies. Volcanoes, subsea vents, and geysers contribute almost all environmental mercury. Forest fires are another source of environmental mercury as trees extract mercury from the subsoil and release it during combustion.
Mercury-scare stats, and other enviro-toxic tales, are often variations of the “no threshold fallacy.” By this illogic: If a substance has toxic potential, then large emissions of this substance, even in concentrations of a few parts per billion, must be surreptitiously poisoning people. In reality, such dilute concentrations do not harm anyone. A block of ice crashing onto a person’s head can be lethal, but snowflakes do not fracture thousands of skulls every year.
*
Between January 2001 and December 2007, eighty-eight proposed coal-fired power plants were thwarted by non-governmental and/or governmental enviro-activism.
In 2007 the war on coal-fired power ramped up. The tenor of the times can be gauged from the writings of James Hanson (a leading climate alarmist, and NASA official, for 30 years) who in 2007 declared:
“If we cannot stop the building of more coal-fired power plants, those coal trains will be death trains – no less gruesome than if they were boxcars headed to crematoria…”
When people complained his Holocaust analogy was over-the-top, Hanson penned more articles denouncing coal plants as “factories of death.” In The Guardian he wrote, “Coal is the greatest threat to civilization and all life on the planet.” (He was arrested at an anti-coal protest in 2010.)
In 2007 the war on coal-fired power ramped up. The tenor of the times can be gauged from the writings of James Hanson (a leading climate alarmist, and NASA official, for 30 years) who in 2007 declared:
“If we cannot stop the building of more coal-fired power plants, those coal trains will be death trains – no less gruesome than if they were boxcars headed to crematoria…”
When people complained his Holocaust analogy was over-the-top, Hanson penned more articles denouncing coal plants as “factories of death.” In The Guardian he wrote, “Coal is the greatest threat to civilization and all life on the planet.” (He was arrested at an anti-coal protest in 2010.)
*
Circa 2007 Texas-based utility TXU Corp. was having none of the War on Coal. They planned 11 more coal-fired plants in Texas plus additional ones in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
An armada of enviro-groups led by Environmental Defense (ED) assailed TXU. ED complained: “TXU and Texas are sprinting full speed back to the 1950s.”
Environmentalists e-mailed TXU officials en masse. Rainforest Action Network sent letters to 54 financial institutions warning them that if they lent money to TXU they would be boycotted and picketed.
In late 2007 three investment firms – Texas Pacific Group (TPG), Goldman Sachs, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts – purchased TXU for a record $45 billion. TPG Chair David Bonderman is a director of WWF, Grand Canyon Trust, and Wilderness Society. (Bonderman’s rise may be attributable to his connections to the eco-billionaire Bass family.)
To stage the TXU takeover Bonderman tasked former EPA Administrator William Reilly to liaise with elite environmentalists. These secret talks were “unusual” and a “watershed in American history.” Environmentalists were assured the takeover would result in many cancelled coal plants.
The takeover budget consisted of $8 billion in equity (cash) and $37 billion in bonds to be payable by the soon-to-be-conquered TXU. The cash came from clients of the three investment firms – mainly pension funds and pools of small passive investors.
After the takeover TXU immediately shelved plans for 8 of its 11 proposed coal plants in Texas and its proposed coal plants in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
TXU, renamed Energy Future Holdings (EFH), now groans under the debt borne of the takeover and has had to increase its electricity prices. EHF owns a meagre 8,000 MW of coal-fired power but boasts of being one of America’s largest purchasers of wind power.
In 2010 the pension funds et al. that ponied up the $8 billion in cash absorbed a $5 billion write-down, confirming suspicions that TXU shares were overpriced.
The TXU takeover was not a rational business deal, it was political activism aimed at removing a potent and intransigent pro-coal player from the US electrical industry.
An armada of enviro-groups led by Environmental Defense (ED) assailed TXU. ED complained: “TXU and Texas are sprinting full speed back to the 1950s.”
Environmentalists e-mailed TXU officials en masse. Rainforest Action Network sent letters to 54 financial institutions warning them that if they lent money to TXU they would be boycotted and picketed.
In late 2007 three investment firms – Texas Pacific Group (TPG), Goldman Sachs, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts – purchased TXU for a record $45 billion. TPG Chair David Bonderman is a director of WWF, Grand Canyon Trust, and Wilderness Society. (Bonderman’s rise may be attributable to his connections to the eco-billionaire Bass family.)
To stage the TXU takeover Bonderman tasked former EPA Administrator William Reilly to liaise with elite environmentalists. These secret talks were “unusual” and a “watershed in American history.” Environmentalists were assured the takeover would result in many cancelled coal plants.
The takeover budget consisted of $8 billion in equity (cash) and $37 billion in bonds to be payable by the soon-to-be-conquered TXU. The cash came from clients of the three investment firms – mainly pension funds and pools of small passive investors.
After the takeover TXU immediately shelved plans for 8 of its 11 proposed coal plants in Texas and its proposed coal plants in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
TXU, renamed Energy Future Holdings (EFH), now groans under the debt borne of the takeover and has had to increase its electricity prices. EHF owns a meagre 8,000 MW of coal-fired power but boasts of being one of America’s largest purchasers of wind power.
In 2010 the pension funds et al. that ponied up the $8 billion in cash absorbed a $5 billion write-down, confirming suspicions that TXU shares were overpriced.
The TXU takeover was not a rational business deal, it was political activism aimed at removing a potent and intransigent pro-coal player from the US electrical industry.
*
In 2008 the Alliance for Climate Protection (Al Gore, Chair) undertook two anti-coal projects: a) Repower America (to transforms America’s energy infrastructure), and b) the WE Campaign (a push for aggressive reductions in CO2 emissions). The latter, a three-year $300 million blitz, paid celebrity “opinion leaders” to appear in television and magazine ads. WE Campaign was one of the largest public advocacy operations in US history.
Also in 2008 Gore implored young Americans to use civil disobedience to block coal plant construction, and he launched the Reality Coalition with a New York Times op-ed demanding a ban on constructing any coal plants unequipped with 100% Carbon Capture and Storage technology.
In a 2008 San Francisco Chronicle interview, presidential candidate Barrack Obama praised the proposed federal CO2 Cap and Trade legislation, adding:
“…if a person wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can, its just that it (Cap and Trade) will bankrupt them, because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”
Obama promptly repeated the phrase about the virtue of bankrupting coal-fired power plants.
(Cap and Trade passed the House in 2009 but was abandoned by Senate Democrats in 2010 for lack of the required 60 votes. This was a blow to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D, Nevada) whose mantra is: “Coal makes us sick.”)
In the 100 days following Obama’s January 20, 2009 inauguration, nine proposed coal-fired power projects were cancelled. These nine plants would have generated 6,650 MW – enough to supply five million homes. Among the thwarted was a 1,500 MW plant scheduled for a Navaho reserve.
Immediately after Obama’s inauguration, the EPA rolled out an unprecedented wave of anti-coal regulations. On January 24, 2009 the EPA filed a novel air quality objection to South Dakota’s proposed $1.3 billion 580 MW Big Stone II coal plant. (The plant was cancelled months later.) On April 17, 2009 EPA designated CO2 a danger to public health.
During Obama’s first 100 days, enviro-supremo Robert Kennedy Jr. gave a speech in Washington, DC wherein he denounced coal companies as “criminal enterprises” whose executives “should be in jail…for all eternity.”
Obama’s choice for Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, called coal his “worst nightmare.”
Also in 2008 Gore implored young Americans to use civil disobedience to block coal plant construction, and he launched the Reality Coalition with a New York Times op-ed demanding a ban on constructing any coal plants unequipped with 100% Carbon Capture and Storage technology.
In a 2008 San Francisco Chronicle interview, presidential candidate Barrack Obama praised the proposed federal CO2 Cap and Trade legislation, adding:
“…if a person wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can, its just that it (Cap and Trade) will bankrupt them, because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”
Obama promptly repeated the phrase about the virtue of bankrupting coal-fired power plants.
(Cap and Trade passed the House in 2009 but was abandoned by Senate Democrats in 2010 for lack of the required 60 votes. This was a blow to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D, Nevada) whose mantra is: “Coal makes us sick.”)
In the 100 days following Obama’s January 20, 2009 inauguration, nine proposed coal-fired power projects were cancelled. These nine plants would have generated 6,650 MW – enough to supply five million homes. Among the thwarted was a 1,500 MW plant scheduled for a Navaho reserve.
Immediately after Obama’s inauguration, the EPA rolled out an unprecedented wave of anti-coal regulations. On January 24, 2009 the EPA filed a novel air quality objection to South Dakota’s proposed $1.3 billion 580 MW Big Stone II coal plant. (The plant was cancelled months later.) On April 17, 2009 EPA designated CO2 a danger to public health.
During Obama’s first 100 days, enviro-supremo Robert Kennedy Jr. gave a speech in Washington, DC wherein he denounced coal companies as “criminal enterprises” whose executives “should be in jail…for all eternity.”
Obama’s choice for Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, called coal his “worst nightmare.”
*
The war on coal-fired power revolves around twin loci: the EPA and Sierra Club. Their twin objectives are closing existing coal-fired plants and thwarting proposed ones.
While the EPA is the federal government’s vanguard coal warrior, dozens of federal branches and departments have been enlisted such as the US Supreme Court, Department of the Interior, and the Export Import Bank.
In a 5-4 ruling in 2007 (Massachusetts vs. EPA),the US Supreme Court okayed the EPA’s regulation of CO2. (Congressional efforts to overturn Massachusetts vs. EPA came in the form ofthe Energy Tax Prevention Act, which passed the House on April 2011 by a 255 to 172 vote. This bill, which seeks to strip the EPA of its CO2 regulatory powers, languishes in the Senate.)
To suppress Appalachian coal mining, the Department of the Interior prohibits “valley fills” within 100 feet of any stream. (When compact ground “overburden” is removed from above a mineral deposit, the overburden expands, making it impossible to stuff back into the hole from whence it came.) In coal-rich Appalachia, surplus overburden is dumped in valley fills, thereby providing welcome level land. In its ongoing litigation regarding this matter, the Department of the Interior is aided by NRDC lawyers.
The US Export Import Bank refused a loan guarantee for a $600 million sale of heavy machinery manufactured by Bucyrus Ltd (Wisconsin) because the machinery was destined for an overseas coal-fired plant.
State governments have also heard the call. For instance, in 2008 then Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius, a Democratic Party heroine, blocked two coal plants because their emissions would allegedly aggravate Global Warming and negatively impact local farmers. The power company salvaged one plant by converting the other into a wind farm.
Sierra Club (SC) leads a dozen national environmental groups in the War on Coal. These groups in turn fund and guide hundreds of local battles against coal-fired plants. SC has recruited 234,766 local activists into a nation-wide matrix of “concerned citizens.” Local cells provide the legal standing needed to oppose specific coal projects in the courts.
The EPA’s governmental allies and the SC’s non-governmental auxiliary are fully integrated. The EPA dishes out $400 million a year to enviro-advocacy groups and other onside organizations like American Lung Association affiliates. The latter dutifully came forward with studies accusing coal emissions of killing 20,000 Americans a year. Many EPA-funded enviro-advocacy groups are coal warriors; some engage in civil disobedience.
The EPA pays enviro-groups to sue the EPA. The EPA then loses or settles these lawsuits in ways that compel the EPA to expand its enforcement powers. Twelve elite enviro-groups have sued the EPA 3,000 times. In 2008 NRDC (recipients of $6.5 million in EPA grants since 2000) sued the EPA to compel the agency to enforce greenhouse gas performance standards. In 2011 the EPA issued regulations compelling coal plants to install multi-billion-dollar haze reduction equipment in order to settle a lawsuit launched by the Environmental Defence Fund – a group that has received $3 million in EPA grants. Environmental Law Institute, a group receiving $10 million from the EPA since 2000, published a “Citizen’s Guide” on how to sue the EPA.
There is also a revolving door between personnel from the EPA and SC. Al Armendariz was forced from a top EPA position in April 2012 after a leaked video showed him bragging about randomly “crucifying” oil drillers. Weeks later, SC hired Armendariz as an anti-coal activist.
While the SC has long protested coal mining, their concerted attack on coal-fired electricity began with their 2002 launch of the National Coal Campaign. According to SC lore, this initiative was a response to secret meetings between VP Dick Cheney and coal execs whereat a ‘Coal Rush’ to build 150 coal-fired plants was plotted. National Coal Campaign, later re-branded Beyond Coal, is the largest campaign undertaken by the SC in its 125-year history. By 2010 Beyond Coal had an $18 million annual budget and a staff of 100.
Between 2002 and 2010, solar power industry bagman David Gelbaum divided donations of $200 million between the SC and the SC Foundation.
Obama’s first budget increased EPA funding by 36% to $10.3 billion. The EPA was granted carte blanche authority to go after coal and they used it.
In 2010, while introducing draconian coal mine water emission standards, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson waxed eloquent on the “biological integrity of streams.” Her main worry was salt pollution. Industry spokespeople contend Perrier water does not meet the new purity standards. Major mines have had permits cancelled for non-compliance with EPA water emission standards.
In 2010 the EPA mandated more stringent limits on SO2 emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. 43% of coal-fired plants do not have the desulphurization equipment needed to make them compliant.
In 2010 the EPA began pushing to re-classify coal ash a “hazardous” substance. This would end the benign practice of recycling ash into cement, bricks, etc. and would increase ash disposal costs 500%.
In 2011 billionaire philanthropist and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, opining how “coal kills every day,” gave $50 million to Beyond Coal. (Unsurprisingly, New York State’s electricity mix is: natural gas 45%, coal 7%, with the rest coming from hydro, nuclear, etc.)
At a gala ceremony on December 21, 2011, the EPA unveiled their new 1,117 page MACT Utility rules and related Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). A 1,000-word press release used the word “toxic” 21 times. The main dread, again, is methylmercury accumulations in freshwater fish being eaten by pregnant women.
MATS and MACT Utility rules are aimed at the 1,100 oldest coal-fired generators. Equipment for capturing mercury and other metal emissions at these coal plants must be as effective as the equipment found at the top performing 12% of coal plants. Owners have four years to comply. These rules could force utilities to spend $100 billion retrofitting old plants. These rules will also increase plant operating costs. A likely result of MATS/MACT Utility will be the forced retirement of most of the coal-fired fleet.
An ongoing collateral struggle surrounds EPA ‘New Source’ policies. For years now, all New Sources of power must have state-of-the-art emissions abatement equipment. The EPA contends repairing old coal plants constitutes a New Source of power because repairs increase plant output and emissions. Such a designation could turn routine maintenance jobs into $100 million endeavours. One consequence of this regulatory battle is coal equipment not being properly maintained.
While SC advocates a complete shutdown of the coal industry, their interim mission is: “to retire 1/3 of the country’s dirty coal plants by 2020...”
Remember: One coal plant closure prevents 47 heart attacks!
SC’s website takes credit for the forced early retirement of 124 coal plants. An update came in a posting titled ‘Coming Clean’ (February 29, 2012) wherein SC Executive Director Michael Brune writes:
“…the Crawford coal-fired power plant in Chicago became the 100th to announce its retirement since the beginning of 2010…That doesn’t even count the proposed plants that have been scuttled since communities across the country started standing up and saying ‘no’ to coal. At last count the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign prevented 166 of those.”
This posting links to a data base detailing the blocking of 172 proposed coal projects (including a few coal-to-liquid and coal gasification plants).
These figures conform to the US Chamber of Commerce’s Progress Denied report of March 2011. Chamber researchers tallied American energy projects either currently stalled or recently killed by enviro-activism. They found 111 coal-fired power and coal-to-liquid plants fitting this description.
On the day of Brune’s posting, the retirements of nine coal-fired plants were announced. Seven of those plants were from GenOn Corp.’s fleet in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In May 2012 Edison International announced the closure of two coal-fired plants near Chicago. In June 2012 FirstEnergy Corp. announced the closure of seven coal-fired plants in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. (FirstEnergy must spend $975 million to make its remaining seven coal plants complaint with EPA standards.)
The EPA figures its MATS/MACT Utility rules will close 10,000 MW of coal-fired power. The EIA estimates 49,000 MW of coal-fired capacity will be retired by 2020. Industry claims MATS/MACT, combined with rules regarding coal ash and cooling water transport, will shutter 80,000 MW of coal-fired power.
The death knell for proposed coal plants rang on March 2012 when the EPA decreed new power plants may release no more than 1,000 pounds of CO2 per MW-hour. US coal plants typically emit 1,768 pounds per CO2 MW-hour. (Natural gas power plants typically emit under 1,000 pounds of CO2 per MW-hour.) While dozens of proposed coal plants have already been approved, few are likely to proceed to completion. With the advent of the 1,000 pound rule, it is unlikely any more plants will be approved – unless Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) breakthroughs are in the offing.
CCS is commercially untenable. Installing CO2 capturing technology increases a coal-fired power plant’s construction costs by at least 50%. Storing CO2 from coal plants will require a vast pipeline network taking a generation to build. Pumping CO2 into the ground requires a phenomenal amount of energy. Mandating CCS is a de facto prohibition on coal-fired power.
While the EPA is the federal government’s vanguard coal warrior, dozens of federal branches and departments have been enlisted such as the US Supreme Court, Department of the Interior, and the Export Import Bank.
In a 5-4 ruling in 2007 (Massachusetts vs. EPA),the US Supreme Court okayed the EPA’s regulation of CO2. (Congressional efforts to overturn Massachusetts vs. EPA came in the form ofthe Energy Tax Prevention Act, which passed the House on April 2011 by a 255 to 172 vote. This bill, which seeks to strip the EPA of its CO2 regulatory powers, languishes in the Senate.)
To suppress Appalachian coal mining, the Department of the Interior prohibits “valley fills” within 100 feet of any stream. (When compact ground “overburden” is removed from above a mineral deposit, the overburden expands, making it impossible to stuff back into the hole from whence it came.) In coal-rich Appalachia, surplus overburden is dumped in valley fills, thereby providing welcome level land. In its ongoing litigation regarding this matter, the Department of the Interior is aided by NRDC lawyers.
The US Export Import Bank refused a loan guarantee for a $600 million sale of heavy machinery manufactured by Bucyrus Ltd (Wisconsin) because the machinery was destined for an overseas coal-fired plant.
State governments have also heard the call. For instance, in 2008 then Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius, a Democratic Party heroine, blocked two coal plants because their emissions would allegedly aggravate Global Warming and negatively impact local farmers. The power company salvaged one plant by converting the other into a wind farm.
Sierra Club (SC) leads a dozen national environmental groups in the War on Coal. These groups in turn fund and guide hundreds of local battles against coal-fired plants. SC has recruited 234,766 local activists into a nation-wide matrix of “concerned citizens.” Local cells provide the legal standing needed to oppose specific coal projects in the courts.
The EPA’s governmental allies and the SC’s non-governmental auxiliary are fully integrated. The EPA dishes out $400 million a year to enviro-advocacy groups and other onside organizations like American Lung Association affiliates. The latter dutifully came forward with studies accusing coal emissions of killing 20,000 Americans a year. Many EPA-funded enviro-advocacy groups are coal warriors; some engage in civil disobedience.
The EPA pays enviro-groups to sue the EPA. The EPA then loses or settles these lawsuits in ways that compel the EPA to expand its enforcement powers. Twelve elite enviro-groups have sued the EPA 3,000 times. In 2008 NRDC (recipients of $6.5 million in EPA grants since 2000) sued the EPA to compel the agency to enforce greenhouse gas performance standards. In 2011 the EPA issued regulations compelling coal plants to install multi-billion-dollar haze reduction equipment in order to settle a lawsuit launched by the Environmental Defence Fund – a group that has received $3 million in EPA grants. Environmental Law Institute, a group receiving $10 million from the EPA since 2000, published a “Citizen’s Guide” on how to sue the EPA.
There is also a revolving door between personnel from the EPA and SC. Al Armendariz was forced from a top EPA position in April 2012 after a leaked video showed him bragging about randomly “crucifying” oil drillers. Weeks later, SC hired Armendariz as an anti-coal activist.
While the SC has long protested coal mining, their concerted attack on coal-fired electricity began with their 2002 launch of the National Coal Campaign. According to SC lore, this initiative was a response to secret meetings between VP Dick Cheney and coal execs whereat a ‘Coal Rush’ to build 150 coal-fired plants was plotted. National Coal Campaign, later re-branded Beyond Coal, is the largest campaign undertaken by the SC in its 125-year history. By 2010 Beyond Coal had an $18 million annual budget and a staff of 100.
Between 2002 and 2010, solar power industry bagman David Gelbaum divided donations of $200 million between the SC and the SC Foundation.
Obama’s first budget increased EPA funding by 36% to $10.3 billion. The EPA was granted carte blanche authority to go after coal and they used it.
In 2010, while introducing draconian coal mine water emission standards, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson waxed eloquent on the “biological integrity of streams.” Her main worry was salt pollution. Industry spokespeople contend Perrier water does not meet the new purity standards. Major mines have had permits cancelled for non-compliance with EPA water emission standards.
In 2010 the EPA mandated more stringent limits on SO2 emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. 43% of coal-fired plants do not have the desulphurization equipment needed to make them compliant.
In 2010 the EPA began pushing to re-classify coal ash a “hazardous” substance. This would end the benign practice of recycling ash into cement, bricks, etc. and would increase ash disposal costs 500%.
In 2011 billionaire philanthropist and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, opining how “coal kills every day,” gave $50 million to Beyond Coal. (Unsurprisingly, New York State’s electricity mix is: natural gas 45%, coal 7%, with the rest coming from hydro, nuclear, etc.)
At a gala ceremony on December 21, 2011, the EPA unveiled their new 1,117 page MACT Utility rules and related Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). A 1,000-word press release used the word “toxic” 21 times. The main dread, again, is methylmercury accumulations in freshwater fish being eaten by pregnant women.
MATS and MACT Utility rules are aimed at the 1,100 oldest coal-fired generators. Equipment for capturing mercury and other metal emissions at these coal plants must be as effective as the equipment found at the top performing 12% of coal plants. Owners have four years to comply. These rules could force utilities to spend $100 billion retrofitting old plants. These rules will also increase plant operating costs. A likely result of MATS/MACT Utility will be the forced retirement of most of the coal-fired fleet.
An ongoing collateral struggle surrounds EPA ‘New Source’ policies. For years now, all New Sources of power must have state-of-the-art emissions abatement equipment. The EPA contends repairing old coal plants constitutes a New Source of power because repairs increase plant output and emissions. Such a designation could turn routine maintenance jobs into $100 million endeavours. One consequence of this regulatory battle is coal equipment not being properly maintained.
While SC advocates a complete shutdown of the coal industry, their interim mission is: “to retire 1/3 of the country’s dirty coal plants by 2020...”
Remember: One coal plant closure prevents 47 heart attacks!
SC’s website takes credit for the forced early retirement of 124 coal plants. An update came in a posting titled ‘Coming Clean’ (February 29, 2012) wherein SC Executive Director Michael Brune writes:
“…the Crawford coal-fired power plant in Chicago became the 100th to announce its retirement since the beginning of 2010…That doesn’t even count the proposed plants that have been scuttled since communities across the country started standing up and saying ‘no’ to coal. At last count the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign prevented 166 of those.”
This posting links to a data base detailing the blocking of 172 proposed coal projects (including a few coal-to-liquid and coal gasification plants).
These figures conform to the US Chamber of Commerce’s Progress Denied report of March 2011. Chamber researchers tallied American energy projects either currently stalled or recently killed by enviro-activism. They found 111 coal-fired power and coal-to-liquid plants fitting this description.
On the day of Brune’s posting, the retirements of nine coal-fired plants were announced. Seven of those plants were from GenOn Corp.’s fleet in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In May 2012 Edison International announced the closure of two coal-fired plants near Chicago. In June 2012 FirstEnergy Corp. announced the closure of seven coal-fired plants in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. (FirstEnergy must spend $975 million to make its remaining seven coal plants complaint with EPA standards.)
The EPA figures its MATS/MACT Utility rules will close 10,000 MW of coal-fired power. The EIA estimates 49,000 MW of coal-fired capacity will be retired by 2020. Industry claims MATS/MACT, combined with rules regarding coal ash and cooling water transport, will shutter 80,000 MW of coal-fired power.
The death knell for proposed coal plants rang on March 2012 when the EPA decreed new power plants may release no more than 1,000 pounds of CO2 per MW-hour. US coal plants typically emit 1,768 pounds per CO2 MW-hour. (Natural gas power plants typically emit under 1,000 pounds of CO2 per MW-hour.) While dozens of proposed coal plants have already been approved, few are likely to proceed to completion. With the advent of the 1,000 pound rule, it is unlikely any more plants will be approved – unless Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) breakthroughs are in the offing.
CCS is commercially untenable. Installing CO2 capturing technology increases a coal-fired power plant’s construction costs by at least 50%. Storing CO2 from coal plants will require a vast pipeline network taking a generation to build. Pumping CO2 into the ground requires a phenomenal amount of energy. Mandating CCS is a de facto prohibition on coal-fired power.
*
America’s two largest electricity companies, Duke Energy and American Electric Power, are members of the Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership – an international cabal hatched at the 1992 Rio Summit. Membership is restricted to the world’s largest electric utilities. The Partnership promotes green energy. A Duke exec currently chairs the Partnership’s board.
Duke Energy, America’s largest US electrical company, sells 58,000 MW to customers in the Carolinas, Florida, Ohio, and Kentucky. Duke’s electricity comes from coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear, and hydro. In the face of unpredictable markets and potential government regulation of carbon, Duke’s bean-counters contend: “fuel diversity is the least cost option.”
Duke supports a Cap and Trade regime for CO2 emissions. Their website is replete with Climate Change propaganda and trophies of their cooperation with enviro-groups. Despite this, Duke faces protracted opposition from enviros opposed to Duke’s plans for an ultra-modern coal plant and a nuclear plant.
American Electric Power (AEP) generates 38,000 MW from 80 stations. This Ohio headquartered firm is active in the Virginias, Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. 66% of AEP power comes from coal, but they are quickly building natural gas plants which now account for 22% of output. AEP has a nuclear plant and is a major purchaser of wind power. In 2011 AEP announced an accelerated phase-out of 25% of their coal-fired capacity.
AEP cancelled their $668 million CCS project. When AEP conceived of this project, they were betting on Cap and Trade passing the Senate. Had Cap and Trade passed, the project’s cost would have been offset by emission credits, i.e. the project would have been indirectly paid for by their less deep-pocketed competitors.
A more militant coal warrior is California’s Pacific Gas & Electric – a company with 5.1 million electricity customers and 4.3 million natural gas customers. Their electricity is from nuclear and renewable sources.
These are the kinds of companies Wall Street Journal editors had in mind when they penned a scathing indictment of the EPA’s MACT Utility regs (Lisa Jackson’s Power Play, December 22, 2011). Closing coal plants will cause electricity shortages. These companies are salivating at the prospect of raking in super-profits during this period of scarcity. None dare call it a cartel.
Duke Energy, America’s largest US electrical company, sells 58,000 MW to customers in the Carolinas, Florida, Ohio, and Kentucky. Duke’s electricity comes from coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear, and hydro. In the face of unpredictable markets and potential government regulation of carbon, Duke’s bean-counters contend: “fuel diversity is the least cost option.”
Duke supports a Cap and Trade regime for CO2 emissions. Their website is replete with Climate Change propaganda and trophies of their cooperation with enviro-groups. Despite this, Duke faces protracted opposition from enviros opposed to Duke’s plans for an ultra-modern coal plant and a nuclear plant.
American Electric Power (AEP) generates 38,000 MW from 80 stations. This Ohio headquartered firm is active in the Virginias, Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. 66% of AEP power comes from coal, but they are quickly building natural gas plants which now account for 22% of output. AEP has a nuclear plant and is a major purchaser of wind power. In 2011 AEP announced an accelerated phase-out of 25% of their coal-fired capacity.
AEP cancelled their $668 million CCS project. When AEP conceived of this project, they were betting on Cap and Trade passing the Senate. Had Cap and Trade passed, the project’s cost would have been offset by emission credits, i.e. the project would have been indirectly paid for by their less deep-pocketed competitors.
A more militant coal warrior is California’s Pacific Gas & Electric – a company with 5.1 million electricity customers and 4.3 million natural gas customers. Their electricity is from nuclear and renewable sources.
These are the kinds of companies Wall Street Journal editors had in mind when they penned a scathing indictment of the EPA’s MACT Utility regs (Lisa Jackson’s Power Play, December 22, 2011). Closing coal plants will cause electricity shortages. These companies are salivating at the prospect of raking in super-profits during this period of scarcity. None dare call it a cartel.
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