Posted on 12/30/2005 8:01:33 AM PST by SmithL
LAUGHLIN, Nev. - A large coal-fired power plant will close at the end of the year rather than violate a court-ordered deadline to install an estimated $1.1 billion in pollution-control measures.
Southern California Edison said Thursday the Mohave Generating Station, at the center of an environmental dispute several years ago, would close. The plant has provided the utility with 7 percent of its electricity, but the company said its 13 million customers would not be immediately affected because of other power sources.
Under a 1999 consent decree won by environmental groups, the aging Mohave plant was required to upgrade its pollution controls or close by Jan. 1, 2006.
The groups had argued the 1,580-megawatt plant, about 100 miles south of Las Vegas, had repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act, contributing to haze at the Grand Canyon.
The utility, the plant's majority owner and operator, had hoped to keep it open as natural gas prices have continued to rise.
In a filing Thursday with the California Public Utilities Commission, Edison said it planned to continue negotiations aimed at keeping the plant open but expected to close it for at least a few months. The environmental groups have said they would not agree to a deadline extension.
The plant is the only customer of the nearby Black Mesa mine, which provides about 160 jobs to members of the Navajo Nation. The mine, run by Peabody Energy Corp., will likely be forced to close.
"It was the environmental groups that helped bring this about - for altruistic reasons, of course - but the result is that a lot of breadwinners are going to be out of work," said George Hardeen, a spokesman for the Navajo Nation.
Environmentalists said they sympathized with the tribes, but argued Edison had plenty of time to fix the plant's pollution problems. Edison should invest in renewable energy sources on tribal land, which would benefit the people "who have been exploited all of these years by the greater metropolitan centers of the West," said Roger Clark, director of the Grand Canyon Trust's air and energy program.
"The night the lights went out in Laughlin". Thank your federal government.
You're not far off. Try $1 billion, 300 million, plus land. This is for a 650 MW unit going in in south Missouri by Associated Electric Cooperative.
How about coal gasification at the mine? Then Combined Cycle (high efficiency, relatively low water usage) at the mine or where the old plant is since transmission lines are there.
(snip)
For months, confusion has been mounting over where Schwarzenegger and the sometimes warring groups in his close staff stand on coal. In April he signed a memorandum of understanding with the governors of Wyoming, Utah and Nevada to create a partnership to build the Frontier Line, a $3-billion-plus transmission project that would bring electricity generated from both coal and wind power to California.
"We need abundant, available, reliable power, and we need it now," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
Environmentalists were rankled by the governor's apparent support for coal-burning power plants, which still produce greenhouse gases even though many other pollutants are scrubbed out of smokestacks. They persuaded Democrats in the Legislature to strike preliminary Frontier Line funding from the state budget.
The environmentalists' fears turned to glee just two months later when Schwarzenegger signed an executive order "establishing clear and ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our state."
State energy regulators, taking a cue from the governor, endorsed his greenhouse gas policy and came down hard on making electricity by burning conventionally pulverized coal.
In October, the state Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved a resolution telling Southern California Edison Co. and other regulated investor-owned utilities that they could sign long-term contracts to buy power from coal-fired plants only if they were as clean as the most modern natural-gas-fueled generator. What's more, the PUC said that any carbon dioxide emitted from a plant would have to be pumped into the ground instead of the atmosphere.
This technology, which turns coal into gas before burning, produces electricity that costs 20% to 40% more than electricity from conventional coal power plants.
A commercial-scale pilot plant is not expected to be ready until 2012 at the earliest, and some coal experts suggest that gasification may not work efficiently at the high elevations where it's mined in the West.
Last month the California Energy Commission took similar action, approving a comprehensive plan that sets the same stringent greenhouse gas standards.
Members of both commissions stressed that they wanted California to spur industry to develop new anti-pollution technology, much in the way automobile manufacturers were forced to curtail tailpipe emissions by meeting ever-tighter government standards.
"Our policy sends a clear message to developers of current coal projects that they are going to need to reach a bit further to more advanced technology," Energy Commissioner John Geesman said.
Environmentalists hailed the commission's plan as an important victory.
"The Schwarzenegger administration has come out very strongly that it's clean coal or nothing," declared Eric Heitz, president of the Energy Foundation in San Francisco.
(snip)
Hildy! Are you another one of them NIMBY's??? OMG!!! You Are, aren'tchew!?!?
It don't matter! She's a NIMBY!!! Or maybe even a BANANA!!!(Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything)
Wait til they sign the law that any electricity brought into CA has to meet CA pollution standards.
Maybe the Utilities should burn "enviros" instead of coal! Now that would be a "two fer one" I could get behind!
Arnie's talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Oh no! another mistake. 3413 btus to the net kw not 3412. Of course that is in a 100% eff world. You see how I am.
You mean the kind Clinton locked up in a national monument and is owned by the Riadys?
As I recall, there were only two places that had clean burning coal. One was the monument Clinton made and the other was owned by the Riadys who gave him all that campaign cash. With Arnold's connections with the Kennedy's, I'm going to have to get out my tinfoil hat.
- chuckle -
Not to be outdone, I have seen 3412 "by definition", 3412.142 in a couple of other places, 3413, and 3414. My old Marks' is at work so I have to wing it!!
I still remember the shock and trauma my youngest son went through when we took him to a dairy farm to see where MILK came from! He was so disgusted when that heifer humped up to crap and a piece of it flew into his pooched open pants pocket where he was squattin up against the far wall!
My goodness! You shoulda seen the hideous look of abject disgust on his 5 year old face!!! He's never drunk MILK again!!!
Does that remind you of the dingy NIMBY's and BANANA's you described, cause it sure reminded me of them!!!
NO! Stand by with that hat thing!! You could be exactly RIGHT!!!
What a quick mind you have and what an astute observation and analysis!!! Bravo!!! Encore!!!
First thing that crossed my mind - - I wonder what scumbag Harry thinks about this?
"You'll get nothing and like it!"
Just a nice friendly reminder to all CA residents to remember this little episode when the next series of blackouts hits. This little debacle cost almost 1600 MW of capacity in the western states. Throwing away Rancho Seco for no good reason cost about 900 MW. SONGS-1 cost about 450 MW. Trojan cost another 1100 MW. That's over 4000 MW of capacity, or a little over 4 million average households of electricity use. The wackos told us "conservation" and "alternate energy sources" were going to make up the loss. Well, we see the result, electricity shortages and horrendous price spikes, which always happen when a commodity is in short supply with conditions of high demand. Wha hoppen, wackos, those "renewable" energy sources couldn't carry the load? You betcha they can't.
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