MONTANA CONSUMERS DEMAND “CLEAN” COAL

If environmentalists get their way, Montana will be the first state to force new coal plants to use “clean” coal technology, also known as carbon-capture-and-sequestration (CCS). Coal advocates point out, rightly, that “clean” coal technology is still in development and not ready for commercial use.

Neither side mentions that “clean” coal isn’t very clean. Mining coal is an environmental disaster. Getting coal from the mines to the power plants by train consumes huge amounts of energy and spews huge amounts of emissions. At best, half the plant’s emissions are “captured” and the safety of sequestration has not been proven.

Above and beyond the question of clean coal, a lawsuit is pending to test whether federal Rural Utility Service funding (a $700+ million loan) is legal, given recently adjudicated Supreme Court precedents finding emissions must be regulated.

Opponents of new coal plant seek carbon dioxide controls
Matthew Brown, December 22, 2007 (AP via Billings Gazette)
and
Jan. 15 county hearing takes on coal-fired plant rezoning issue
Richard Ecke, January 3, 2008 (Great Falls Tribune)

WHO
Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative (5 Montana rural electric cooperatives and the city of Great Falls); Montana Environmental Review Board (Chairman Joe Russell); Environmentalist group Earthjustice

Artist's concept of Montana's Highwood Generating Station. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
If Southern Montana Electric is to build the proposed 250-megawatt coal-fired Highwood Generating Station, County commissioners must rezone for it and the Montana Environmental Review Board must respond to environmentalists’ demand that the plant be equipped with “clean” coal technology.

WHEN
- Cascade County commissioners will hold a public hearing Jan. 15 about rezoning in the Trades & Industries Building at Montana Expo Park, 3rd Street Northwest and 4th Avenue Northwest in Great Falls.
- The Environmental Review Board will next take up the question before it Jan. 11.
- It is not clear when the legality of the federal Rural Utility Service funding will be settled.

Montana's actual Colstrip power plant. Slight difference. (click to enlarge)

WHERE
Highwood Generating Station would be built east of Great Falls in the Salem Road area.

WHY
- Highwood Generating Station would likely cost $720 million.
- Great Falls will seek private financing. The co-ops hope to obtain financing from the federal Rural Utilities Service but may be forced to explore private financing.
- The Montana Environmental Review Board can create the new regulation requiring CCS even though the initial permit was issued after the Supreme Court’s recent finding that CO2 is a pollutant and must be regulated.
- The environmentalists’ are petitioning the Board to do just that, the latest in a series of efforts to prevent the plant. They claim the Board’s jurisdiction comes from a 1990 amendment to the Clean Air Act.
- Environmentalists also claim the initial permit was issues without full analysis of plant emissions.

Earthjustice suggests coal plant emissions are harmful to pregnant women. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Kenneth Reich, Highwood attorney: "…you don't impose a standard after the fact on a licensee."
- Abigail Dillen, environmentalist lawyer, Earthjustice: "You don't have to create a new policy to make a major difference in global warming…Is carbon dioxide subject to regulation? That's the question you need to ask yourself, and the answer is yes."