COAL COMEBACK

NCPA Daily Policy Digest ^ | July 29, 2003 | Sudeep Reddy

[bruinbirdman]

Texas is the nation's fifth-biggest producer of coal, and its largest consumer. San Antonio's municipal utility plans to build the first new coal-fired power plant in Texas in more than a decade, signaling a new day for coal, say supporters.

Coal produces half the nation's electricity, because it is cheap and abundant.

• Energy from coal is one-third the cost of energy from natural gas or oil and lacks the price volatility that the other fuels face.

• The United States has a quarter of the world's known coal reserves, a 250-year supply at today's consumption level

• It is enough to produce the energy equivalent to 1 trillion barrels of oil -- the amount of proven oil reserves in the world.

Critics have long decried coal -- the largest single industrial source of air pollution -- for its effect on the environment and public health. However, since the 1970 Clean Air Act, electricity generation from coal has tripled while total emissions have been cut by a third.

Emissions from plants employing the latest technology are on par with natural gas fired plants, say experts. They capture carbon dioxide and other emissions instead of releasing them into the air.

Across the country, 81 new coal plants have been announced, according to Energy Ventures Analysis Inc., a research and consulting firm. Only seven of those are "highly likely" to move forward, compared with 51 that are unlikely to be built, the group projects.

Source: Sudeep Reddy, "The case for coal," Dallas Morning News, July 29, 2003.

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[Hodar]

Texas - The "We ain't got no stinking blackouts, cuz we plan ahead, .. y'all" state.

[StatesEnemy]

There's gotta be a cleaner way to extract energy from coal.

Nanotechnology - manipulation at the molecular (and atomic) level - should allow us to 'oxidize' carbon bonds and turn them directly into electricity and solid 'waste'.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Goreknowshowtocheat]

We will not permit anyone who "plans ahead" to enter California politics.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

****We will not permit anyone who "plans ahead" to enter California politics.***

Does California have the equivilant of ERCOT(Energy Reliabiability Council of Texas)?

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.

[Goreknowshowtocheat]

In California, the Nevada Chamber of Commerce funds Democratic candidates with some help from Arizona. Our energy policy is basically to encourage business to relocate to areas of the country that plan for energy demand.

[e_engineer]

There's gotta be a cleaner way to extract energy from coal.

Yes there is. Extract the uranium from the coal, and use it to make fuel rods for a NUCLEAR power plant.

At least nuke plants don't add to this problem:

[cpdiii]

There's gotta be a cleaner way to extract energy from coal. Nanotechnology - manipulation at the molecular (and atomic) level - should allow us to 'oxidize' carbon bonds and turn them directly into electricity and solid 'waste'.

This technology exists today and is widely available. It is called fire :)

[cpdiii]

You will receive much more radiation if you are downwind from a coal fired plant as opposed to a nuclear plant.

[rockfish59]

Send a couple tons this way before Gore hears about it!

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Most Texas power is produced and used in Texas. Because of this it cannot be regulated by the US government because it is not Iterstate commerce
A few producers do have interstate regulations as they do operate in both TX, LA, and Ark.

[bruinbirdman]

""We ain't got no stinking blackouts, cuz we plan ahead, .. y'all" state."

My little town here in Nevada has no blackouts ('cept an occasional lightning outage). We have our own power source. Boulder Dam. eh,eh. We own four little generators deep in bowels of the thing. They were installed first in the early '30s to provide power to the camp where the workers and gov'ment bureaucrats were housed. Boulder City, NV was a government "reservation" until 1963.

yitbos

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!