QUICK NEWS, August 1: MTR COAL MINING UPS CANCER; TEXAS TURNS TO SUN; WIND CUTS EMISSIONS; ENERGY INDEPENDENCE DRIVES UTILITIES

MTR COAL MINING UPS CANCER
Breaking: New Study Links Mountaintop Removal to 60,000 Additional Cancer Cases
Jeff Biggers, July 27, 2011 (AlterNet)

"Among the 1.2 million American citizens living in mountaintop removal [MTR] mining counties in central Appalachia, an additional 60,000 cases of cancer are directly linked to the federally sanctioned strip-mining practice.

"That is the damning conclusion in… the peer-reviewed [Journal of Community Health: The Publication for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention’s] Self-Reported Cancer Rates in Two Rural Areas of West Virginia with and Without Mountaintop Coal Mining…a groundbreaking [2011] community-based participatory research survey…which gathered person-level health data from communities directly impacted by mountaintop mining, and compared [it] to communities without mining."

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[Michael Hendryx, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine and Director of West Virginia Rural Health Research Center, West Virginia University] “A door to door survey of 769 adults found that the cancer rate was twice as high in a community exposed to mountaintop removal mining compared to a non-mining control community…This significantly higher risk was found after control for age, sex, smoking, occupational exposure and family cancer history. The study adds to the growing evidence that mountaintop mining environments are harmful to human health.”

"Bottom line: Far from simply being an environmental issue, mountaintop removal is killing American residents."


TEXAS TURNS TO SUN
CPS Energy ratchets up investment in solar; Utility notifies its bidders that project will be eight times larger.
Tracy Idell Hamilton, July 7, 2011 (San Antonio News Express)

"CPS Energy will be making a far larger investment in solar energy than the already substantial 50-megawatt project it sought proposals for earlier this year…[Bidders for that project have until July 16 to resubmit their proposals…for up to 400 megawatts, in large part because the price of solar continues to drop…

"Today, the largest solar installation in the world is 97 megawatts in southern Ontario, followed by several between 84 and 53 megawatts in Italy, Germany and Spain…Four hundred megawatts can power about 80,000 homes…That's almost half the amount CPS needs to replace the two coal-burning units it plans to retire in 2018."

Might as well get something besides drought from all that sun (click to enlarge)

"For the other half, CPS plans to buy 200 megawatts of “clean coal” from a first-of-its-kind plant to be built near Odessa, and will save 250 megawatts through home energy management systems offered to customers for free.

"The increase in the solar proposal comes as something of a surprise…Prices for solar photovoltaic components continue to drop, leading to falling prices for the power itself…CPS reportedly will pay 15 cents per kilowatt hour for the power it's contracted to buy from the three 10-megawatt solar projects to be built and owned by SunEdison…Sources say the most recent proposals are as much as 30 percent less than that…"


WIND CUTS EMISSIONS
Wind energy reduces fossil fuel use and emissions
Michael Goggin, July 28, 2011 (Baltimore Sun)

"As wind energy makes increasing headway in reducing America's dependence on fossil fuels and the harmful emissions associated with their use, the fossil fuel industry has launched an increasingly desperate misinformation campaign to muddy the waters…

"[An op-ed by] Mr. Charles Campbell, a retired senior vice president of the Gulf Oil Corporation ("Wind farms wrong answer to Md.'s greenhouse gas emissions…is marred by numerous false statements and a serious misunderstanding of how the power grid operates. One only need to look to Iowa or Texas, which last year produced 15 percent and 8 percent of their electricity from wind respectively, to see that adding wind to the grid actually improves power system reliability."

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"…[T]here is no need to "back up" wind output as he claims…The output of wind plants is aggregated with all of the other changes in electricity supply and demand on a massive interstate power grid…[ and the grid remains] stable and manageable…[B]oth onshore and offshore wind are relatively easy for grid operators to integrate, as changes in wind energy output occur slowly and are predictable…[L]arge fossil and nuclear power plants…are the ones that experience large, immediate, and unexpected outages, requiring grid operators to keep 1,000-plus megawatts of fast acting, expensive and inefficient standby generation ready 24/7 in case one of those plants goes down.

"U.S. Department of Energy data conclusively show that states that have ramped up their wind energy output over the last several years, like Colorado and Texas, have seen major reductions in air pollution emissions. In addition, every independent grid operator that has examined the issue has found that adding wind energy to the grid results in significant reductions in fossil fuel use and emissions."


ENERGY INDEPENDENCE DRIVES UTILITIES
Energy security impels utilities to invest in power generation
July 26, 2011 (Electric Light & Power)

"Utilities have still not shaken off the investment torpor brought on by the downturn, but that is set to change with the country's alarming dependence on other countries for its escalating energy needs.

"The government is offering several subsidies and incentives such as soft loans, tax benefits and feed-in tariffs to attract investors in its energy industry and ensure energy security…[The electricity] market earned revenues of $1.16 billion in 2010 and estimates this to increase to $2.16 billion in 2015…"

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"The expected growth in power demand has not only catalyzed the market for renewable power generation, but also compelled utilities to invest in new and conventional electrical equipment and technology to improve the efficiency and reliability of the plant's operation…"

[Vignesh Sundaram, Senior Research Analyst, Frost & Sullivan:] "The government is aiming to harness its natural gas, wind and solar energy, thereby reducing dependence on other countries…The increasing investments in new natural gas power plants and renewable fuel sources such as wind and solar power generation will boost the need for electrical equipment."