COAL DOUBT STOPS PLANT BUILDING

With this failing commitment to dirty coal and the floundering fate of "clean" coal, there are fewer choices with which to power the future. Nuclear, with all its attendant costs and dangers, and New Energy (solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and wave-tide-current) which only lacks a concerted commitment to the right incentives.

Coal’s doubters block new wave of power plants
Rebecca Smith, July 29, 2007 (Wall Street Journal via St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

WHO
Coal-burning power plant builders and operators

WHAT
Despite abundant American coal reserves and rising energy demand, plans to build coal-burning power plants are being abandoned.
A complicated, expensive, unproven process (click to enlarge) that does not necessarily dispose of all the emissions.

WHEN
- Presently, coal supplies 50% of US electricity. Nuclear supplies 20%.
- In May there were 150 new plants planned but cancellations and delays are becoming more common. Nearly 2 dozen planned plants have been cancelled since early 2006. Many more have beeb delayed.

WHERE
- June 2007: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist signed a law giving the state’s Public Service Commission authority to prioritize renewable energy and conservation ahead of coal-fired power plant construction.
- Other recent similar reversals: Texas, North Carolina, Oregon (and other states).
- A Minnesota judge concluded that installing “clean coal” technology capable of capturing 30% of emissions would potentially double the cost of the plant's power.

WHY
Standard coal-burning plants release the most greenhouse gases (GHGs) of any power source. With anti-climate change measures almost inevitably coming, this will make coal a more expensive energy than it has been. Natural gas, even at its rising market prices driven by increased demand, is a cleaner burning and therefore more atteractive alternative. Incentives and subsidies are bringing more and more renewable sources into cost-competitiveness. Many studies are showing the expense of new plants can be avoided by conservation and efficiency. And “clean coal” technologies have two serious obstacles to overcome: They are not yet proven on a commercial scale and even if a safe means to make coal “clean” is found, it may drive the cost of burning coal out of the practical range.
The article fails to mention that, like other fossil fuels, there is a limit to the supply of coal. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Steven F. Leer, ceo, Arch Coal Inc.: “[Some power plants] may get stalled due to the uncertainty over climate concerns."
- Marc Spitzer, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: "Gas is the bridge fuel…"