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Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Topics
Sun Archives
- Editorial: Good riddance to coal (2-10-2009)
- NV Energy delays coal plant, hastens transmission line project (2-9-2009)
- NV Energy prepares to open green command center (2-6-2009)
- Yackira remains bullish on utility's master plan (8-22-2008)
- Snell & Wilmer eager to challenge allegations (6-27-2008)
- Natural gas pains (5-30-2008)
- Renewable energy efforts gather momentum (1-4-2008)
The announcement may have proved the environmental version of the domino theory — when one coal plant falls, the next isn’t far behind.
NV Energy’s announcement Monday that it was shelving plans for a large, coal-fired power plant near Ely for at least a decade came as no surprise to those who have been tracking the industry.
In recent months, plans for similar projects have faced new roadblocks that went beyond the typical opposition from environmentalists and not-in-my-back-yard complaints. Some of those plants fell altogether.
Some blamed environmental concerns on the part of regulators and legislators. Others were toppled by the economic risk that comes with political and regulatory uncertainties over carbon legislation.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s appeals board rejected portions of emissions permits for coal plants in Utah and New Mexico in November and January.
Then, in late January, the Air Force ditched plans for a liquid coal plant in Montana, and on Jan. 30, Arizona Public Service, the state’s major utility, filed a long-range plan that emphasized renewables and said the company would build no new coal plants.
On Feb. 1, a Montana utility announced it would scrap plans for a coal-fired plant in favor of wind and natural gas.
Two days later Georgia regulators proposed a bill that would put a hold on new coal plants and prevent existing ones from burning coal mined by destroying mountaintops. That same day Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said in her State of the State address that she would send all developers of new coal plants back to the drawing board to consider clean alternatives first, and Pennsylvania regulators rejected a waste coal plant proposed there.
On Feb. 6, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle announced that a power plant operated by the University of Wisconsin would begin burning biomass instead of coal. The next day, major utility American Electric Power announced that it would put a coal gasification plant in Ohio on hold.
Then came NV Energy’s Monday announcement, lauded by environmentalists nationally and by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who over the past year has been a harsh critic of the company’s plans for a coal plant.
“This landmark decision puts Nevada at the cutting edge of clean energy development in the nation, and that will pave the way to creating thousands of new jobs and putting the state on the road to renewed prosperity,” said Lydia Ball, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club and environmental coalition Nevada Clean Energy Campaign.
Virginia Cramer, associate press secretary of the Sierra Club, said NV Energy won’t be the last to make such an announcement.
“What we’re seeing is a trend. More and more companies like NV Energy and state officials like Gov. Granholm are realizing that coal is not a good investment anymore,” she said.
Although NV Energy’s decision had certainly been anticipated, NV Energy President and Chief Executive Michael Yackira’s statements about why the company is shelving the plant went further than many observers had expected.
Yackira said he expects climate change legislation — such as a carbon tax or a pay-to-pollute system — to pass during this session of Congress, by the end of 2010.
Without knowing the cost of a possible carbon regime, Yackira said, it was too financially risky for the company and for ratepayers to invest in a plant whose energy might become increasingly expensive in the coming years.
Yackira said the company would take up the proposal for a 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant near Ely again in a decade or so, when scientists expect commercial power plants to be able to capture greenhouse gas emissions and store them underground.
He said the company would get by in the meantime with three new natural-gas-fired plants it has built or purchased in the past two years, and by developing wind, geothermal and solar resources in Nevada.
Cramer said the many companies proposing coal plants like NV Energy’s are probably wary of the Obama administration’s concern about global warming and its willingness to take action to stop it.
In fact, Yackira said two other companies proposing coal plants in Nevada are facing the same considerations.
“I don’t think anyone is going to be able to develop a coal plant any faster ... than the middle of the next decade,” he said.
Clean Coal is a joke. There is no such thing as clean coal. Why are we wasting money on this crap when we could be investing in Solar. Nevada has tons of Sun and solar is "CLEAN!!!"
I cannot believe that our corrupt elected leaders try to force feed us this garbage about coal every year down the electorate neck. Piss on the greedy energy lobby.
<<Yackira said the company would take up the proposal for a 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant near Ely again in a decade or so, when scientists expect commercial power plants to be able to capture greenhouse gas emissions and store them underground.>>
Haha you mean like 100 years or so!
Nevada Patriot, did you read this story? Your response sounds like you missed most of it.
<Nevada Patriot, did you read this story? Your response sounds like you missed most of it.>
Yup, I read the story. Would you like me to read it to you.
I am just making a comment about clean coal. I remember a couple of years back Gibbons was going to mine for coal in Nevada LoL!
This is Sierra Pathetic's karma. They helped snuff out another good project, a natural gas fired power plant, up there almost a decade ago for this. Yep. It's karma.
Coal is abundant. We have to use it. The envionmental nuts are running this nation into the ground. They couldn't care less about this nation's security interests. This is exactly why Obama, and these ludicrous nut jobs are going to be gone or run over after four years of this insanity. Wind,geothermal and sun powered energy is great when you can get them up and running in an area where the energy is required. But that's not always possible. The US in the Saudi Arabia of coal resources. We've got to hammer down these environments who are concerned about nothing but global warming( which is BS) and protecting rare weeds.
As part of the Reid-Pelosi Stimulus II borrow and welfare spending package Harry Reid put $2 billion dollars to push forward on the FutureGen demonstration of new clean coal power plants by using advanced carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
The new plant will be built in Illinois (not in Ely Nevada) providing the south side of Chicago with cheap subsided power.
So why is Harry Reid is stopping coal in Nevada. Coal is our cheapest source of central generating power. With advanced carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology there is no carbon emission cap and trade cost.
Meanwhile Harry Reid is promoting "Dirty" natural gas-fired unit which pollute CO2 at 1/2 the rate of a dirty coal plant and will be subject to carbon emission cap and trade costs.
Where is Harry Reid's logic.
We need to stop buying or building any "Dirty" fossil fuel plants including natural gas-fired power units, until Harry announces how much cap and trade will cost Nevada.
Harry Reid is full of "Dirty" natural gas.
I smell a "Dirty" natural gas Lobbyist in Harry Reid' Searchlight Cabal.
Three Natural Gas plants = about 1500 megawatts of carbon burning energy which = the same amount of greenhouse gases as one 1500 megawatt coal plant. When Reid claims clean energy, it does not take a brilliant person to see he is telling yet another lie. Reid simply will replace one fossil fuel with another. I guess that will hold us over until Obama's team can tell us coal has been made clean.
The Sierra Club is probably the most corrupt and stupid enviro group out there. They were all bought out by T-Bone Pickens. Let's not forget the Nevada Conservation League. They have all decided that thousands of acres of Nevada public lands can be scraped up and ruined so we can help T-boone pickens make ebven more money. So this is how you buy an enviro group. Lydia Ball is probably one of the most poorly informed conservationists out there.
We could do the feed in tarif. Get people set up with solar panels, use the stimulus money to do it and they can sell the excess power back to the company. Hardly ANY houses in Vegas have solar panels. Instead we will pay higher power bills so Harry Reid can lie to us about clean energy. If you are buying Reid's BS, you deserve to pay higher rates...
Coal is abundant. We have to use it. The envionmental nuts are running this nation into the ground. They couldn't care less about this Houstonjac <<nation's security interests. This is exactly why Obama, and these ludicrous nut jobs are going to be gone or run over after four years of this insanity. Wind,geothermal and sun powered energy is great when you can get them up and running in an area where the energy is required. But that's not always possible. The US in the Saudi Arabia of coal resources. We've got to hammer down these environments who are concerned about nothing but global warming( which is BS) and protecting rare weeds.>>
4 words: You are an Idiot
<<As part of the Reid-Pelosi Stimulus II borrow and welfare spending package Harry Reid put $2 billion dollars to push forward on the FutureGen demonstration of new clean coal power plants by using advanced carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.>>
There is no such thing as Clean Coal. CCS is farce it is a LIE. There is not any CCS Technology.
It is absolutely disgusting that we are wasting 2 billion dollars on this crap.
Looks like American Citizens are getting bent over and lubed up and drilled one more time by Big Energy and corrupt politicians!!!!!
Harry Reid doesn't want coal. In January, Duke Energy said Searchlight would be a perfect for a wind farm. Residents of the Searchlight oasis, protested with a resounding "No".
NIMBY, we want it, but we don't want it here?
"Clean" coal technology is not the cleanest of fuels, but it is substnatially cleaner than old coal technology. The natural gas pipeline and volume required for large projects are limited in Nevada, so in many locations a natural gas project is not possible.
Nevada Power was going to retire old coal plants with a new coal technology plant, thus reducing overall emissions in their portfolio and our state. Now those emission reductions have been shelved with the project, for an unknown period of time.
Sounds like a questionable victory, especially if the State has a power production defecit now and considering that renewable resources are not cost effective now on the scale of the MW needed to replace the older, dirty coal plants.
I'm not saying I'm pro coal, but just a little common sense. I'd rather retire the old plants, reduce emissions now with the new plant and phase in renewable as it becomes cost effective on a large scale. A little conservation wouldn't hurt either...
Currently there is not a commerical size wind farm or a commerical size solar farm that produces energy 24/7.
Nor is there any technology that is on the horizon to make solar or wind to produce energy on a cost effective basis 24/7.
Solar and wind are expensive sources of power.
They can not replace reliable sources of power like coal, natural gas or nuclear. They can only supplement the grid.
It looks like they are shutting the door on coal so we will have a over reliance on natural gas which has a history of large swings in prices.
In about 20 years from now our power bills will be the size of a car payment on a fancy new car.
The politicans then will say: "Who me? I dunno know nothing. It is all the utilities fault."
Good riddance to coal. There are many reasons other than CO2 that make coal nasty. Replacing it with natural gas makes sense, but only in the short term. Wind and sun cannot replace coal, so I think Nevada should take a close look at nuclear. I'm not 100% certain about this but if there is enough water to run a coal generation plant Nevada probably has enough water for nuclear power. See www.energyplanusa.com for a common sense energy plan.
You libs can twist and shout all you want, our country is doomed.
We will never be energy independent. Never.
I was in Reno today and when I flew home I looked out the window of the plane and into the Owens valley in California. No Solar, No wind. Same problem we have here, to many enviro-wacko's spoil the soup.
Go ahead, disagree.
The US can shut down all coal today and China and developing countries will still burn coal and polute, and news flash, they don't care.
Want to know why everything is "made in china".
No unions, no minimum wage, no job protection, no environmental restrictions and nobody cares.
<"Clean" coal technology is not the cleanest of fuels, but it is substnatially cleaner than old coal technology.>
There is no such thing as clean coal technology!
getalife: <The US can shut down all coal today and China and developing countries will still burn coal and polute, and news flash, they don't care.>
So two wrongs make a right?
<Want to know why everything is "made in china".
No unions, no minimum wage>
LoL, even with no unions it's pretty difficult to compete against $200 dollar per month labor. I do not know any Americans that are going to accept $1.25 per day. I am wondering are you willing to take a pay cut Getalife?
It sure would be intelligent to reduce our minimum wage so lower class citizens would spendless and consume more government resources either through support programs or becoming part of the criminal justice system.
I must say you are truly clever?
<no job protection, no environmental restrictions and nobody cares.>
Yes you are right they have no job restrictions and no environmental restrictions. Do two wrongs make a right?
I have been to both China and India multiple times. I can assure that their environment is heavily polluted. It is a big problem for them and they will pay dearly to clean to it up. For example at least 60% of China's water resources are polluted beyond repair. So sooner or later China's environmental issues will need to be addressed.
I would assert that you have no idea what your talking about regarding these issues. Would you like me to suggest some objective reading materials so you can better educate yourself?
Or do you want to continue to listen your Apostle Rush perform his radio sermons high on Oxycotins?
Problem is natural gas isn't the answer for baseload needs and we have been using natural gas for baseload because we live in a State where political leaders have no vision/don't lead. Natural gas was the easy sell, just the wrong solution. Natural gas is a great source for peaking (when demand is super high and the system needs a quick boost of extra kwh). The price of natural gas is extremely volatile and its a great source for cars and heating homes and as feedstock for making products. States like Nevada are wasting this valuable resource and jacking up the price for home heating etc because we misuse it -- because spineless pols can't stand the heat. To the writer who compared a 1500 Mw natural gas plant to three 1500 Mw coal plants he made a common mistake (I'm no defender of coal). Typically a 1500 Mw natural gas plant is making electricity at 25% capacity, coal plants operate at much higher capacity factors and nuclear plants operate by far most efficiently. Point is not all 1500 Mw plants are the same. A 1500 Mw nuclear plant makes 3 or 4 times the electricty of a natural gas plant with the same capacity nameplate. I strongly support the goal of building more solar in Nevada, but it doesn't do us any good without transmission lines and you can justify building transmission lines unless you have baseload energy on the sytstem (nuclear, coal, hydro). Nevada will end up trying to do it with natural gas and we will end up with the highest electricty rates in the country 10 or so years down the road -- mark my word.
To learn more about clean coal-to-oil (coal2oil) conversion energy, visit coal2oil.org.
John M. Kocol, Founder & CEO
coal2oil.org
Nance- Thermal solar power is coming on strong
More Elecricity than even the largest nuke-
Pull your damn head out buddy- solar is on the way like it or not.
The largest series of solar installations in history, more than 1,300 megawatts, is planned for the desert outside Los Angeles, according to a new deal between the utility Southern California Edison and solar power plant maker, BrightSource.
The momentous deal will deliver more electricity than even the largest nuclear plant, spread out among seven facilities, the first of which will start up in 2013. When fully operational, the companies say the facility will provide enough electricity to power 845,000 homes -- more than exist in San Francisco -- though estimates like that are notoriously squirrely.
The technology isn't the familiar photovoltaics -- the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity -- but solar thermal power, which concentrates the sun's rays to create steam in a boiler and spin a turbine.
"We do see solar as the large untapped resource, particularly in Southern California," said Stuart Hemphill, vice president of renewable energy and power at Southern California Edison. "It's barely tapped and we're eager to see it expand in our portfolio."
<<To learn more about clean coal-to-oil (coal2oil) conversion energy, visit coal2oil.org.
John M. Kocol, Founder & CEO
coal2oil.org>>>
LOL Show me clean coal and I will show you how to turn dog poo into gold!!!!
Clean coal is a fraud, fake and just another attempt by Big Energy to bamboozel Americans with catch phrases and cool talking points so they can continue to operate unregulated.
Nevada_Patriot "Would you like me to read it to you."
No need. If I want something spun I'll watch Fox.
Nevada_Patriot, thanks for giving creedence to my rant. Thank you for supporting China.
The point I was making is this; (I will type slowly for you) unless the enviro-wackos lighten up and our politicians grow a set of stones we will never be energy independent.
As for your dribble about wanting to lower wages, I did not say I advocate that. I am merely pointing out reality.
<Nevada_Patriot, thanks for giving creedence to my rant. Thank you for supporting China.>
LOL, you do not even make any sense. This statement is so asinine, it's not even worth addressing.
<The point I was making is this; (I will type slowly for you) unless the enviro-wackos lighten up>
Can you explain clearly?
<and our politicians grow a set of stones we will never be energy independent.>
Meaning How?
Do you mean like proposing real energy solutions such as:
1. Nuclear. Obviously the most efficient. Way more efficient than the clean coal fraud.
2. Solar for Nevada.
3. Alternative powered vehicles such as electric cars? Or at least fuel efficient cars +40mpg or is this too much to ask?
The real reality is big spending Republicans have piled up a Mt. Everest of debt and the USA is broke!!!!
Coal may not be the perfect energy source but the alternatives to not using this abundant fuel that we have in our own country as well as nuclear power are many times worse. Our first priority should be energy independence!