NewEnergyNews: Reality TV Comes To Coal Country

NewEnergyNews

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

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YESTERDAY

  • HEADLINE: CLIMATE CHANGE & PUBLIC HEALTH
  • MORE NEWS, 12-3: NO HOME VALUE HARM FROM WIND; THE SOLUTION IN THE MIRROR; OCEAN ENERGY AFLOAT; ABOUT THOSE EMAILS

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    GET THE DAILY HEADLINES EMAIL: CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS OR SEND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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    THE DAY BEFORE

  • TODAY’S HEADLINE: BIG FAST AFFORDABLE EMISSIONS CUTS ARE WITHIN REACH, A STUDY ON EUROPE SHOWS
  • MORE NEWS, 12-2: NEW YORK WANTS GREAT LAKES WIND; LA STEPS UP TO THE ELECTRIC CAR; LED IS THE BETTER BULB; A NEW ENERGY INVESTMENT VEHICLE

    THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

  • HEADLINE: CLIMATE CHANGE’S EVOLVING PLAN B
  • MORE NEWS, 12-1: NEW WIRES, RECORD WIND; A RIGHT TO SUN; MAKING WAVE ENERGY DURABLE; THE CAR’S FUTURE POSTPONED

    • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

  • HEADLINE: PLANNING TO BEAT CLIMATE CHANGE
  • MORE NEWS, 11-30: CAP&TRADE SIMPLIFIED; MICHIGAN LOCALS GET READY FOR WIND; EVER MORE AFFORDABLE SUN; INSURERS FRET OVER CLIMATE CHANGE

    • AND THE DAY BEFORE THAT

  • SUNDAY WORLD- LATIN AMERICAN WINDS
  • SUNDAY WORLD- NEW SOLAR POWER PLANT MONEY FOR SPAIN
  • SUNDAY WORLD- NORWAY’S OCEAN OSMOSIS PLAY
  • SUNDAY WORLD- GREEN BROTHER IN KENYA
  • SUNDAY WORLD- W/HYDROPOWER DROUGHTED, KENYA GOES GEOTHERMAL

    • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

  • Saturday Video: Tick Tick Tick
  • Saturday Video: We Are All Connected
  • Saturday Video: Climate Crock Of The Week

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    Anne B. Butterfield of DAILY CAMERA, is a biweekly contributor to NewEnergyNews

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  • The first rule of holes - Stop digging
  • Anne B. Butterfield, November 21, 2009 (NewEnergyNews)

    “The supply of cheap coal is no longer abundant. Seventy percent of Colorado`s electricity comes from coal plants and that is too much today, and over time it will become an impediment to economic growth.” - Tom Sanzillo.

    Most experienced investors know that the way to invest safely is through a diversified portfolio of stocks picked across a variety of market sectors, with options to keep money in cash, bonds, metals or land. That`s diversity. It spreads the risk and allows flexibility to respond to changing market conditions.

    If any stockbroker saw that your portfolio on which you will utterly depend in the future, were 70 percent in one sector, that would be the fist thing he would tell you to change. Too much exposure. Too risky. Too rigid.

    Now look at Colorado`s power generation: it comes 70 percent from one fuel type: coal, a fuel source documented by the United States Geological Survey, plus the Departments of Energy, Agriculture and Interior, have all estimated our days of cheap coal ending in as little as two decades.

    In Colorado, vaunted as a "coal state" by so many politicians, production of the black rock peaked in 2004 and fell off about one-fifth in four years, according to the Energy Information Administration. On top of that, documents from Xcel Energy show that four mines in Colorado entered "force majeure" status in the past eighteen months meaning they were hampered by exogenous difficulties that freed them from contractual obligations.

    The coal situation is a sword of Damocles over Colorado`s prosperity, particularly because when XcelEnergy fires up its new 750 megawatt coal plant soon in Pueblo, it will increase the utility`s coal burn by 25 percent on coal brought in from Wyoming. That means exporting our dollars on fuel we don`t need.

    Sending our fuel dollars out of state adds insult to the basic injury of our largest utility increasing its basic rates on people already being disconnected at 5,000 per month, plus passing on coal costs that are will jump by 25 percent this year, both in cost and volume.

    Up at our northern fuel source, Wyoming`s Powder River Basin is now producing 40 percent of our nation`s coal from mines that mostly have life spans of less than twenty years. The PRB`s future mine sites shall be much deeper underground than today`s mines, that means escalating costs. Generally all other states producing coal have gotten past their peak production.

    "What`s not understood is how expensive it`s going to be to get that coal out of the ground," says Tom Sanzillo, the former acting Comptroller of the State of New York who was responsible for his state`s pension plans, some of the nation`s largest. He made it his calling after retirement to examine the investment case for coal fired power and he now he gives testimony to numerous states` governments. His testimony is that investing in coal power generation in general, and in Colorado in particular, is a sinking ship.

    Sanzillo has seen a side of the coal industry that occasionally burps out truth. Attending the World Coal Conference in London in late October, he saw coal executives respond to mini instant polls in which they used hand clickers to vote anonymously. To one question "Do you believe coal reserve assessments to be accurate?" their answer was "No" -- to the tune of 89 percent.

    No one is thinking that coal reserves are underestimated, but no one in the business is discussing the problem aloud, either. Sanzillo explains: "It takes a while for people to wrap their heads around this knowledge which means decades of common wisdom being overturned."

    And here we are, increasing instead of reducing Colorado`s 70 percent coal profile while the climate bill coming out of the U.S. Congress proposes to intensify our nation`s investment in coal through carbon capture and storage schemes.

    That`s sending good money after bad. You don`t invest in a costly, unproven infrastructure to service a fuel source that is fast depleting anymore than you put fancy improvements onto a house that`s been claimed by eminent domain.

    Fortunately this week, twenty Colorado state lawmakers asked the U.S. Senate to limit funding for coal and nuclear energy in the energy bill so as not to prevent diversification into efficiency, wind and solar, which even Xcel`s own projections have shown can pay off in savings in as little as four years.

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    Anne's previous NewEnergyNews columns:

  • The first rule of holes - Stop digging (November 21, 2009)
  • Boulder Start-up to Profit on Atmospheric CO2 in Manufacturing (November 11, 2009)
  • The wind for new energy is stiffening (October 26, 2009)
  • Necessary but not sufficient (October 14, 2009)
  • Tort reform: Go big, Obama! (September 14, 2009)
  • Xcel takes aim at Boulder’s solar (July 27, 2009)
  • Selfishly seeking clean energy (July 12, 2009)
  • The big ka-ching in our health care wallet (June 19, 2009)
  • It takes a Governor (May 24, 2009)
  • Want a job? Think Wind. (May 10, 2009)
  • Just Say No to Xcess Energy (April 28, 2009)
  • NREL’s history of fickle funding (April 12, 2009)
  • Wagons firmly circled: Governance at REA’s and Tri-State (March 26, 2009)
  • A new migratory pattern: Colorado youth go to Washington (March 12, 2009)
  • Even coal is in for a revolution (February 22, 2009)
  • High Flyers and the Commons (February 11, 2009)
  • Come on Baby, Sit by Me (January 25, 2009)
  • A return on investment (January 3, 2009)
  • Mr. Secretary, we're watching you (December 28, 2008)
  • Canary in the Coal Mine (December 13, 2008)
  • Crash test dummies (November 16, 2008)
  • Needless markup (November 2, 2008)
  • The flap about 58 (October 19, 2008)
  • Hip towns and a clever measure (October 7, 2008)
  • Are we afraid of change? Still? (September 21, 2008)
  • Cheney in a chignon (September 7, 2008)
  • Don't tick off the blonde (August 10, 2008)
  • Buying us time on global warming (July 27, 2008)
  • Hint from Heloise - It's the pH, Stupid! (July 13, 2008)
  • Nukes: the position ridiculous and the expense damnable (June 29, 2008)

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    About Me

    Name: Herman K. Trabish
    Location: La Crescenta, CA

    *Doctor with my hands *Author of the "OIL IN THEIR BLOOD" series with my head *Student of New Energy with my heart

    View my complete profile

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    • Saturday, July 11, 2009

    Reality TV Comes To Coal Country

    There are people in West Virginia fighting to stop the coal industry from destroying the mountains as it mines a fuel that is destroying the earth. Coal miners are terrified of the change. This is how they act out their fear. When Fear and Ignorance join, they beget something very ugly. Say hello to America, where people who don’t want things to change are very, very afraid and they are lashing out at the President and his supporters just like this ugly, ugly man is lashing out at people who are trying to save the very mountains in which he lives. From agustgudmundsson via YouTube.

    posted by Herman K. Trabish @ 4:51 AM

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