« Ernesto Threatens Gulf | Main | Today's Lieberman Joke »

August 26, 2006

Mr. Peabody's Coal Train

Environment

A big global warming worry has been the enormous amount of coal-fired electrical generation capacity being added in places like China and India. But we don't have to look that far from home. Grist (via Big Gav) tells us that here in the US, coal-fired plants are being built at an astonishing and dangerous pace. Excerpt:

Across the nation, 153 new coal plants are currently proposed, enough to power some 93 million homes. Of those 153 proposals, only 24 have expressed an intent to use gasification technology, which offers a way to handle the large amounts of carbon dioxide produced by coal combustion. A recent report from the National Energy Technology Laboratory anticipates the construction of up to 309 new 500 MW coal plants in the U.S. by 2030. If NETL's projections are correct, U.S. coal-generation capacity will more than triple by 2010, with corresponding air pollution and greenhouse-gas increases.

Some of the 153 proposed coal plants will add capacity for existing public utilities. Others, like those by developers LS Power and Peabody, are speculative "merchant" coal plants, which ultimately intend to sell the power — or even the plant itself — to the highest bidder. Local need for power is not part of the calculations behind these merchant plants. The concept isn't new, but the voracious expansion plans are.

Economic projections indicate that demand for electricity will continue to rise, so developers are gambling that the need for power and the low price of western coal will make them very rich. Merchant-coal developers are also finding ways to minimize the risks posed by possible carbon regulation on the horizon. A recent Business Week analysis approvingly cites Peabody's plan to sell ownership stakes in its new plants to municipal utilities and electric cooperatives, along with 30-year Peabody coal-supply contracts. If and when federal carbon regulation pushes up the cost of coal-fired generation, a smart developer like Peabody will have insulated itself from that expense. The utilities and cooperatives will pay ever-higher prices to generate electricity, passing those costs on to the consumer — but Peabody's profits will never falter. [Emphasis added]

I wonder if "2010" is a typo, but in any case this is a very ominous trend.

People who think the capitalist market will, all by itself, solve our energy and environmental problems should take note. The fundamental problem (it could hardly be any more fundamental) with unregulated capitalism vis-a-vis the environment is that the people producing the pollution don't pay the cost. As a result, it may be a whole lot more profitable to destroy the Earth than to preserve it. The coal story is a huge case in point. They'll make their quick buck now, and leave it to the rest of us to figure out what to do about global warming later. At some point, however, later will be too late.

Posted by Jonathan at August 26, 2006 11:42 AM  

Comments

One solution:

http://www.skystreamenergy.com/skystream/

Posted by: Jeff at August 26, 2006 10:02 PM

Another solution:

http://www.getoffthegrid.com/roofuni.html

Posted by: Jeff at August 26, 2006 10:07 PM

Another solution:

http://www.vhemt.org/

Most will take that as a joke answer, but whatever.
The housing market crash and subsequent economic downturn may cause these plants to sit idle or not be built at all. Wishful thinking?

Posted by: Clay at August 28, 2006 01:27 PM