Coal-fired Power Plants Face Dim Future

(Page 3 of 3)

April 13, 2009
By Jonathan G. Dorn, Earth Policy Institute 
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Power companies and utilities are responding to the increasing regulatory uncertainty and mounting public opposition by backing away from coal and turning to clean, renewable sources of energy, such as wind, solar and geothermal.

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Dynegy Inc., a wholesale power provider serving 13 states, announced in January that it will no longer continue its joint venture with LS Power Associates L.P. to build up to seven new coal-fired power plants. On the day that Dynegy made the announcement, its stock price rose 19 percent. Several weeks later, Arizona’s largest electric utility, Arizona Public Service Co., submitted a resource plan to the Arizona Corporation Commission indicating that it will not build any new coal-fired power plants because the carbon risk is too high. In late February, Oklahoma Gas & Electric released a plan to turn to renewable energy and defer building any fossil-fired power plants until at least 2020.

The notion that the United States needs additional coal-fired electricity generation to meet electrical demand is misguided. Simply using electricity more efficiently could reap large energy gains. A recent study by the Rocky Mountain Institute found that if the 40 least energy-efficient states raised their electric productivity — the dollars of gross domestic product generated per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed — to the average level of the 10 most efficient states, 62 percent of coal-fired power generation in the United States could be shut down — roughly 370 coal plants.

The events of the past two years illustrate that the door is closing on the prospect of building new coal-fired power plants in the United States. While only five new coal plants, totaling 1,400 megawatts, began operation in 2008, more than 100 wind farms capable of generating 8,400 megawatts came online. Yet this is only the beginning. To have a decent chance of mitigating the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change, our attention should now turn to phasing out all coal-fired electricity generation over the next decade.

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Copyright © 2009 Earth Policy Institute.
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Comments

  • J_R_S 4/20/2009 4:13:09 PM

    Oh, please... that claim about "your energy bill will go up $1600 next year" is pure right-wing political propaganda. It's a lie. There are no valid statistics to back it up. Yes, energy bills will be going up in the future, but that is going to happen no matter *how* we generate our electricity. But they aren't going to go up anywhere near that much that fast. And in case people haven't noticed, we are already paying 2 to 3 times a much for our electricity as we were 15 years ago -- and that increase happened using "cheap coal" to expand our grid capacity.

    "Cheap coal" is only cheap to build, it is incredibly expensive to use in the long run considering all the health problems, acid rain, mountaintop destruction and CO2 greenhouse gas this filthy 'resource' blesses us with.

    Unfortunately for all of us, coal-fired electric plants are only being stalled in the USA. China is *still* building a new one every week (literally), and India is doing the same. And those plants are not regulated like the ones in the U.S. and so do not have the scrubbers and filters on the smokestacks! Surely everyone realizes that air pollution in China and India does NOT stay in China and India?

  • Sandy S 4/19/2009 11:42:18 AM

    Anyone believing coal is cheap needs to talk to Sarah Palin she has a bridge to nowhere she would be glad to sell you. Coal and its hidden expense is our power bridge to nowhere unless we use it to transition to renewable power. Your taxes, subsidies, pollution and destruction of mountains at the expense of future generations is a burden we shouldn’t pass on to our grandchildren.
    http://dirtycoaltva.blogspot.com/
    http://lifeonswanpond.livejournal.com/
    http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/granju/2009/03/tva-protest-planned.html
    Coal will not be the cheapest thing we have if we truly enforce the Clean Air Act and stop letting polluters use our money to bribe officials, Period.

  • Sandy S 4/19/2009 11:09:34 AM

    I believe individuals should be paid to generate electricity then feed it to the grid to help boost our power supply to as many as we can and lower our reliance on imported oil, coal and nuclear. So many problems come with them, besides large tax dodging company domination and control of our power supply.
    Rural peoples could use biomass from their property instead of letting it become methane polluting the air more than 20 times more than CO2. They could use it to generate electricity; produce income, spreading any pollution they produce out so vegetation can use the CO2 on their property. Many did it during WW2.
    If we augment our power with solar, wind, running water, etc. on a small basis we could produce a lot of electrical power for the smart grid it would shorten transmission distances and the losses accumulated.
    Time we get off our collective assets and stop letting some big polluting power company using government grants, subsidies, and our tax money to enslave us to use their power only with rules they make to discourage self reliant power

  • Joe Church 4/17/2009 10:41:29 PM

    Coal is used because it is the cheapest thing we have. Period. With B. Hussein Nobama, Pelosi, Reid, etal cap and trade your average electric bill is to increase $1,600.00 in the next year.
    Wind power sounds good as long as it near Pelosi & Reid's house not mine.

  • Becka Schexnayder 4/17/2009 5:03:41 PM

    Hmmm...My electric company have raise the price on us as they claim to be building a new coa-burning plant. They said the new plant will put out less CO2 in the air. If the federal government is not allowing any new coal plants to be build...then why are we paying higher prices?

  • eric 4/14/2009 2:07:24 PM

    Its too bad special interest groups (coal,oil,etc) has so much political power, money, and media influence (fox news, and conservative radio) on people because so many misinformed believe the propaganda and overlook the facts.
    But at least now we are starting to come to our senses and people are realizing that switching to wind, solar, etc is not only a national security issue but also a positive econimic one as well.

  • Doug Cresse 4/13/2009 8:30:48 PM

    Are you serious? What we need to phase out are people like you. Even if your "renewable energy sources" were viable, your co-horts won't allow them to be constructed. A lot of stuff I read on this web-site is good stuff, too bad it allows articles like this.

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