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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zoltan! who wrote (125757)	2/7/2001 7:48:37 AM
From: John Carragher	Respond to of 769667

What a difference a new administration makes towards using existing energy supplies. COAL vs eating up home owners natural gas. Coal Plants Are Offered Grants To Raise Efficiency, Cut Pollution By JOHN J. FIALKA Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- In a first step toward a Bush energy policy, the Energy Department is offering $95 million in matching grants to quickly increase efficiency and decrease pollution at coal-fired power plants. Such plants, which provide 51% of the nation's electricity, were targets of lawsuits and tougher air-pollution regulations under the Clinton administration, which had the effect of discouraging the construction of new plants and the modernization of older ones. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham indicated that enhancing the future of coal-fired power is "certain to be part of a comprehensive national energy policy" under the Bush administration. Funds for the grants program were drawn from other agency research initiatives last fall by House and Senate appropriations committees after California experienced the first signs of its energy shortage, a department official said. One of the program's priorities is to find technology that can quickly be fitted on existing plants to increase generating efficiency. Conventional coal-fired plants convert only about a third of the energy potential of coal into electricity. The Energy Department is asking for proposals for increasing generating efficiency by April 13. The program aims to get more electricity from existing plants "without getting swords crossed with environmental requirements," the official said. Raising the energy-producing efficiency of coal-fired plants also would cut down on pollution produced per unit of electricity, without the need to install expensive antipollution equipment in older plants. John Grasser, a vice president of the National Mining Association, said the move toward more-efficient coal plants is "critical to the domestic coal industry." But Frank O'Donnell, the head of the Clean Air Trust, a Washington environmental group, was skeptical of the new program, noting that coal burning produces a "whole galaxy of pollutants," including nitrogen oxide, mercury, toxic metals, soot and carbon dioxide. The new effort could use relatively inexpensive technologies, such as changes in electronic controls that govern the combustion process, and newer boilers to avoid "hot spots" that create nitrogen oxide, a common ingredient of smog, the Energy Department official said. Utilities frequently complain that resistance in local communities is among the toughest hurdles to increasing generating capacity. Demonstrating that coal-burning plants can operate more cleanly could help states get quicker site approval for such plants, the official said. Write to John J. Fialka at john.fialka@wsj.com