NewEnergyNews: THE FUTURE OF COAL?

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

Every day is Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

  • TODAY’S STUDY: CLIMATE CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA – A CASE STUDY
  • QUICK NEWS, May 22: WHAT THE U.S. CAN LEARN FROM GERMAN SOLAR SUCCESS; EARLY RESULTS SHOW WIND CAN PROTECT EAGLES; TEXAS GROWING NEW ENERGY, QUADRUPLES SUN

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    THE DAY BEFORE

  • TODAY’S STUDY: WHAT UTILITIES THINK
  • QUICK NEWS, May 21: U.S. EMISSIONS DROP AS ELECTRICITY OUTPUT RISES; THE SPACES BETWEEN THE WINDS; WTO RULES FOR IMPORTED SUN

    • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

  • TODAY’S STUDY: THE BEST UTILITIES FOR SUN
  • QUICK NEWS, May 20: INSURANCE COMPANIES PREPARE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE; UK’S GREEN BANK BRINGS THE BIG BUCKS; UTILITY GOES FOR BETTER SUN, WIND FORECASTS

    • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

  • Weekend Video: Spray On Solar
  • Weekend Video: Wind In The Rural Landscape
  • Weekend Video: What Dark Snow Means

    • AND THE DAY BEFORE THAT

  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-WHERE NEW ENERGY NEEDS TO BE
  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-KUWAIT’S POSSIBLE SOLAR
  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-WHAT INDIA WIND NEEDS

    • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

  • TTTA Thursday- HOW CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL WORKS
  • TTTA Thursday-HOW WOMEN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
  • TTTA Thursday-POLITICS AND THE EPA
  • TTTA Thursday-THE ENORMOUS LED OPPORTUNITY

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    Anne B. Butterfield of Daily Camera and Huffington Post, is a biweekly contributor to NewEnergyNews

  • NEW BILLS AND NEW BIRDS in Colorado's recent session (May 20, 2013) by Anne Butterfield (Boulder Daily Camera via NewEnergyNews)

    Out with the old and in with a new. Gone are the five feet of snow from April and May - and in with this sudden summer heat. The feeder and fountain in view from this keyboard are graced with migratory birds such as Evening Grosbeak, Spotted Towhee and one Ruby-Throated hummingbird that loved on that sugar water when all fragrant things were cloaked by heavy snow. And in Denver, flown from the coop are all our state legislators from their tightly compressed legislative session. What have they gotten done?

    “This has been an extraordinary legislature,” said a seasoned Democratic fundraiser in Denver, Sallyanne Ofner by Facebook message. The range of work was wide:

    For civil unions came a meaningful redress of the wrong-headed vote of 2006 to limit marriage to one man and one woman. Now LGBT couples can commit for life and legally reap respect and due benefits.

    Firearm safety has been enhanced with popular universal background checks on purchases plus size limits on high capacity magazines.

    On behalf of rape victims, parental rights of attackers over the children they spawn have been severed, and sexual assault victims have access to a payment program for their medical needs.

    One gripping disappointment was the failure to repeal the costly and conspicuously racist death penalty in Colorado.

    Also disheartening: the failure to pass seven out of nine bills to regulate hydraulic fracturing. A notable failure was minimum fines for serious spills -- needed apparently because spills now don’t invoke the maximum fines allowed. The 30-hour spill that erupted in mid-February near Fort Collins still has not been fined, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. The Governor has ordered a formal review of how fines are imposed.

    Also targeted was a ban on energy industry employees from serving on the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to regulate their own companies - failed. Lawmakers also failed to require more frequent inspections at Colorado’s tens of thousands of wells, though they did secure budgeting for 11 more inspectors and a lower spill amount threshold at which companies must report. More health and water testing around fracking areas? Also failed.

    Visiting The Camera this week, representatives from the Colorado Oil and Gas Association lamented the session as being polarized, and that legislators with no knowledge of industry surprised them with a slew of bills that COGA hadn’t seen much less collaborated on. This came off poorly as they and their 23 lobbyists certainly know that the session is compressed and filled with the slew of matters just mentioned.

    Coming this fall is still more action on fracking, in a rule making session by the Air Quality Control Commission. Judging by the Governor’s oft-stated goal to see “zero” fugitive emissions from natural gas infrastructure, let’s hope the AQCC can screw some new regulations to the sticking point.

    On the bright side for clean energy, Boulder’s own Will Toor is uniquely proud of a suite of successful bills for electric vehicles that led his agency, South West Energy Efficient Project, to launch Colorado to a leading grade of A- among six western states for EV’s. New bills included extended rebates for private purchases of EV’s and conversions of hybrids. For state and local governments to purchase EV’s, life cycle costs may now be considered as well as contracting through energy service companies to have EV’s paid for through fuel savings. PACE financing for commercial buildings and parking lots was expanded to cover charging stations. Also, apartment buildings and HOA’s will have to allow charging stations. And to address an old sore spot, a decal program will have EV owners pay a $50 tax per year for road maintenance and the construction of more public charging stations.

    We will see more charging stations – this comes with nice timing as Consumer Reports just named the Tesla Model S the best car. And as Colorado’s electric power sector cleans its emissions, the use of EV’s will leverage reductions in emissions from transportation.

    But that electric sector still has serious business leftover. Colorado has until June 7th to persuade the Governor to act on the gloriously debated SB 252 that would require rural electric providers to get 20 percent of their power from renewables. Since coal costs have about doubled over 10 years and Tri-States’ coal-rich power expenses have risen four times faster than sales, SB252 needs to pass for pocketbooks and to deal with that horrific new 400 ppm of CO2 in our atmosphere.

    Author's note: Want to support my work? Please "fan" me at Huffpost Denver, here (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-butterfield). Thanks.

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    Anne's previous NewEnergyNews columns:

  • Lies, damned lies and politicians (October 8, 2012)
  • Colorado's Elegant Solution to Fracking (April 23, 2012)
  • Shale Gas: From Geologic Bubble to Economic Bubble (March 15, 2012)
  • Taken for granted no more (February 5, 2012)
  • The Republican clown car circus (January 6, 2012)
  • Twenty-Somethings of Colorado With Skin in the Game (November 22, 2011)
  • Occupy, Xcel, and the Mother of All Cliffs (October 31, 2011)
  • Boulder Can Own Its Power With Distributed Generation (June 7, 2011)
  • The Plunging Cost of Renewables and Boulder's Energy Future (April 19, 2011)
  • Paddling Down the River Denial (January 12, 2011)
  • The Fox (News) That Jumped the Shark (December 16, 2010)
  • Click here for an archive of Butterfield columns

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    Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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    Your intrepid reporter

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      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

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    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

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    • Saturday, June 09, 2007

    THE FUTURE OF COAL?

    What's interesting is that the best solution, wind energy and new transmission to serve it, doesn't even get mentioned.

    Power companies split on future of coal
    Steve James, June 5, 2007 (Reuters)

    WHO
    Thomas Farrell, CEO, Dominion Resources Inc.;John Bryson, CEO, Edison International;
    is coal going to even be there? (click to enlarge)
    WHAT
    Farrell is told Reuters the foreseeable future of US power generation is coal. Bryson stressed getting away from coal and going to natural gas. Both discussed other options.

    WHEN
    - Summit was June 5.
    - Edison’s contracts on Powder River Basin coal run through 2012.

    WHERE
    Reuters Global Energy Summit
    - Dominion is based in Richmond, Virginia. Edison is based in Rosemead, California.
    - Dominion is building a new coal plant in southwest Virgina.
    - Edison has no plans for new coal-fired power plants but operates several in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana.
    - Edison is looking at "clean coal” projects in Illinois, California and elsewhere.

    WHY
    - Over 50% of US electricity comes from coal-burning power plants and they produce a lot of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
    - Edison is interested in carbon capture projects in the hope of finding a way to make use of the enormous (possibly 200 years’ worth) US coal reserves without creating the severe GHGs associated with coal-fired power plants.
    - U.S. Energy Information Administration: 12 U.S. coal plants are being built, the most in decades, w/now-uncertain plans for 150 more.
    watch for politicians from these states and see who they serve (click to enlarge)
    QUOTES
    - Farrell: "I don't know how you can maintain even where we are today without using coal…Not taking into account growth ... if you want electricity, you're going to have to have coal…Yes there's going to be difficulty in building new coal plants…Is there new coal (burning infrastructure) going to be built? Yes, it will have to be."
    - Bryson: "Coal raises a set of concerns. We are not looking at coal (for new plants)…" Bryson said.

    posted by Herman K. Trabish @ 12:39 PM

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