The Millennial Files

Coal Power Losing Momentum

After all my stressing out about the Clean Coal ruse being marketed, promoted, sold to and bought by the American public, I was delighted to read in a report sponsored by Nevada Senator Reid the dinosaur of dirty energy is possibly on the verge of meeting its own demise. Well, at least decline.

Unlike the SUV campaign of a few years ago, which convinced many Baby-Boomers to raise their hipness quotient by consuming vast quantities of gasoline to power vehicles that would make their father’s car look like a Volkswagen, burning coal via the clean coal facade has begun to hit its own ruts in the road to success due to the one thing no one can afford now : INFLATION.

In addition to 50 proposed U.S. coal-fired power plants being cancelled or delayed, at least eight “clean coal” plants have been cancelled, postponed or rejected by regulators more as a result of cost overuns and problematic transportation issues, than concerns about global warming. In 2007 Duke Energy was forced by the North Carolina Utilities Commissionto cancel its coal plant project because the projected cost of building a new twin-unit power plant in North Carolina exceeded its orginal budget by 50% (to about $3 billion). When TXU Corp, the Texas energy giant was faced with attacks from environmentalists about its 11 proposed new coal plants in the state, the resulting legal skirmishes and investor concerns about the high cost of the plants sent its share price plummeting. TXU ended up reducing the number of proposed coal plants to three to get it sold to two large private equity firms for $45 billion.

In terms of transportation, there is only one rail for 100 miles available to move coal from the Powder River Basins in Wyoming which is shared by two rail lines. 40% of coal used to power the U.S. lies in Powder Basins and is preferred due to its low sulfur contet. When two 2005 train derailments delayed coal deliveries for months, utilities began hoarding their existing coal supplies and relied on their more expensive natural-gas plants to produce electricity, which in turn drove up the cost of energy for ratepayers. Additionally, in spite of an increase of production in coal fields of southern Illinois and Indiana, without a north/south rail line to deliver loads to Chicago and Great Lakes, there is no cost-efficient mechanism to supply coal to the power plants there. One recommended solution, building a 300-mile “Indiana Corridor” would cost $1million per mile.

When the Clean Coal consortiums advocate their technology, which add another enormous expense to the literal price of coal, it’s no wonder regulators and governors are suspending or cancelling plans for a technology that has yet to be proven, and look elsewhere for those investments — like solar and wind.

And we didn’t have to use underage kids to convince them. Imagine that.