Posted on 09/17/2014 6:34:55 AM PDT by rktman
For climate change activists and those hoping for an energy future dominated by renewables or even less-polluting natural gas, the death of coal cannot come quickly enough. But with coal still the dominant form of cheap electricity throughout the world, it is unlikely the bogeyman of climate change will disappear anytime soon.
That's because the price of coal, compared to other fuels, is just too good to refuse. Just look at China, where the country's double-digit economic growth has largely been fueled by coal, which fulfills 60 percent of its energy mix.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
Because that’s where the cheap energy is.
Vivat Rex.
Another thing to consider..where is the concern for the physical safety of Americans?
Using abundant coal, transported safely by TRAIN to the point of use, is preferable, to me, than shipping millions of barrels of OIL by trains and by trucks.
A derailment of a coal bearing train makes one hell of a mess along a limited distance of track.
We have seen , sadly, the result of the derailment of an OIL bearing collection of tanker rail cars. Same with accidents involving fuel carrying trucks.
What will be the next city/town to be burned out as 50 fuel carrying railroad cars crash? What about the people caught in the inferno?
Anyone who’s taken a minute to see where electricity comes from has always known the silliness of this argument
“Just look at China, where the country’s double-digit economic growth has largely been fueled by coal, which fulfills 60 percent of its energy mix.”
Its usually between 65%-70% on the MISO grid.
https://www.misoenergy.org/MarketsOperations/RealTimeMarketData/Pages/FuelMix.aspx
Price map;
https://www.misoenergy.org/LMPContourMap/MISO_All.html
Ignorant and silly are the right words for someone like MN’s Gov.Dayton who is on record saying he wants to eliminate coal from the fuel mix for MN. He’s obviously not looked at the MISO maps I’ve linked.
All coal fired plants near me here inn SW Pennsylvania. Railroad tracks full of coal cars pull right into the plant. In my latest electric bill it stated that out rates will increase by 14% in October!!
Seem to remember someone saying something about energy prices skyrocketing. One of the few things he said that wasn’t a lie.
It comes from that little white box in my wall silly.
Mine is beige, but as Hillary once said, “WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?”
But don’t worry the inflation rate is near 0%, according to the Government.
The history of oil by rail shows a spill rate LESS than pipelines.
Most people have their very own gas pipeline that feeds into their house.
Note that our economy runs on energy.
No power today = no production = no jobs.
That rate increase is directly attributable to government mandates. The Coop I work for has raised rates by nearly 100% over the last ten years for the same reason. Here’s how it works, I’m from ND so I will use Theodore Roosevelt National Park as an example.
- Here’s what you find on the taxpayer funded web National park service site for air quality in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park;
http://www.nature.nps.gov/air/permits/aris/thro/impacts.cfm?tab=0#TabbedPanels1
Note that the “haze” in the pictures (something we normally call fog here in ND) is assumed to be caused by air pollution, specifically NOx. Also note that the power plants in ND are downwind of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park
- Groups like Wild Earth Guardians use the EPA to clean up the air in notional parks, in this case, Theodore Roosevelt National Park;
- The EPA responds with threats to take over environmental regulation in ND with mandates for ND power plants to clean up NOx. NOx is supposed to be the cause of the “regional haze” (fog) in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
- The power plant I work at spends 450 million to upgrade its SO2 scrubbers and install a NOx reduction systems. The NOx reduction is accomplished by spraying urea into the boiler at a cost of 200-800 dollars per hour depending on the coal. (These are the costs that are shutting down coal plants in New England and across the nation.)
- The Coop I work for has to raise rates by 30% to cover the cost of meeting the government mandates. (Our rates have doubled in the last ten years mainly to meet government mandates.)
- EPA reimburses the legal costs Wild Earth Guardians incurred suing EPA.
Recap, the costs to the taxpayer/consumer;
- pay for a government web site claiming regional haze is caused by power plant pollution
- the legal costs entities like Wild Earth Guardians incur suing the fedgov.
- the costs to upgrade power plants to meet new pollution control mandates
- the ongoing new and increased costs of lime and urea for SO2 and NOx control.
Consumers/taxpayers really need to learn to drill down to the true root causes and take it up with the people they elected to serve them. There is no better way to kill an economy than to artificially raise the cost of its lifeblood - energy.
Our local coal fired plant is preparing to install unneeded scrubbers to remove the last smidgen of sulfur from low sulfur Wyoming coal due to the EPA mandate.
I expect our bill to go up accordingly.
Since they serve different markets, one doesn't replace the other. We don't use oil for our power plants and we don't use coal in our vehicle engines.
Claysville Solar Farm
Green Mountain Solar
Coskata, Woody biomass
All SW Pennsylvania.
http://www.nrdc.org/energy/renewables/map_penn.asp#map
Thanks for correcting me!!!! You rock!!!
Granted, they are minor. But Penn has lots of other similar projects as you head east in the state.
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