Coal Burning Power Plants: The Next Divine Strake? It May Not Come to That
schreinervideo.blogspot.com
2/26/2007
You could call it the Big Texas Power Play. The proposed TXU/KKR deal for $45 billion could change Texas' biggest utility and ultimately the entire power industry, including here in Utah, from an irresponsible, arrogant, polluting dinosaur into a green, futuristic public servant. This massive fissure in the cosmos started when TXU proposed building eleven new, coal-fired power plants, regardless of the huge environmental impacts. They even manipulated Gov. Perry into trying, illegally and unsuccessfully, to fast-track the proposal. Environmental groups protested loudly. Then, in a startling turn of events late last week, a group of eco-conscious equity fund companies led by KKR proposed buying TXU out and scrapping the new plants entirely. TXU is interested in making the deal because they won't have to spend the rest of this century in court or paying for expensive new, green coal-burning technology, making the whole venture unprofitable and therefore, not worth it. The ramifications are Magnitude 9 for all of us, especially here. Utah could get at least one new 950-megawatt coal-fired plant built near Delta by Intermountain Power in the next few years pending approval. The Sierra Club and Grand Canyon Trust are fighting it, saying the proposed plant fails to comply with the federal Clean Air Act. In granting the permit, the Utah Air Quality Board said the green groups do not have the expertise to allege environmental threats, but the state supreme court later said they do. An appeals hearing is scheduled for October. The Oregon PUC recently rejected a similar proposal for a new plant by PacifiCorp, a principal owner of the Delta project, because they felt the company did not prove the need for the Utah plant and another in Wyoming. With a long, costly court battle and costly environmental controls staring at them, Intermountain Power should look closely at the TXU/KKR deal and decide if they want to pull a Divine Strake and cancel the new plant now or billions of dollars later. It's another great opportunity for alternative energy, especially when you consider the wealth of renewable and other less-polluting energy sources Utah has: hydro, solar (everywhere, especially south), geothermal (northwest), wind (east) and even nuclear. And the reasons to kill Delta don't stop there. The new plant was designed mostly to provide power to the ever-hungrier California market. But Gov. Schwarzenegger recently prohibited the state from accepting power from other than clean energy sources, which coal is not. So is there still enough demand to justify construction of the new Delta plant? Several Utah communities have already agreed to buy power from it, despite opposition from residents concerned about air quality. But with Utah's air problems only getting worse, the current Delta proposal not only looks environmentally stupid and short-sighted, it also looks less economically feasible because of the legal costs, environmental control costs, loss of the California market and potentially others like Las Vegas, who is turning uncharacteristically green lately. Also, Congress is considering several bills that would tax carbon emissions to pressure the industry to reduce greenhouse gases. The tax could force the new power plant to pay $8 a ton or more for each of the 7 million tons of pollution the new plant would emit into the atmosphere. I wonder if we'll even get to the October appeal hearing before the whole thing is deep sixed. If there's still profit to be made, of course. Like Divine Strake, Heaven forbid they consider the health of Utah residents. Like Divine Strake, support from the legislature and Gov. Huntsman would help. But their cozy relationships with EnergySolutions, the mining and power industries tell me their loyalties lie with someone other than The People on this one. Time to call Terry Wood. |
