Posted on 04/18/2006 8:01:21 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
In championing the so-called “Frontier Line,” a Western states electric power development and transmission project, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed a memorandum of understanding on it yesterday, is embracing the newest frontier of the old energy economy. The Frontier Line is about coal-fired electric power. That’s why the Frontier Line would originate in coal producing Wyoming and is embraced by the coal lobby of the Mountain West. They have the coal power, we have the electricity market in need. The out-of-state wind farms that are talked up by Schwarzenegger and his energy czar, Joe Desmond -- who will depart his post as California Energy Commission chairman on May 7 because the state Senate will not confirm him -- are green window-dressing around the central agenda.
If domestic fossil fuels have a future in electric power generation in the U.S., it is because of coal. If foreign sources were cut off, America has barely a decade’s worth of domestic supply of natural gas left, the relatively clean burning fossil fuel of choice in today’s electric power plants. That’s why there has been so much talk by Schwarzenegger and some business interests about importing expensive liquified natural gas into California. Coal, however, is another question. America’s coal reserves could last for upwards of 200 years. Along with the former Soviet Union, the U.S. has the world’s largest reserves of coal, about 23 percent each of the global total. China, with 11 percent, ranks third in coal reserves, but first in coal production.
But there is a problem, even with the advent of “clean coal” to replace the traditional sooty image of this oldest of mined energy resources. Coal is a mineral consisting mostly of elemental carbon. And carbon waste product in the form of carbon dioxide is at the core of the greenhouse gas problem most scientists believe drives climate change around the world.
The Frontier Line project has improved since Desmond started pushing it more than a year ago, moving from conventional polluting coal-fired electric power production (there is a reason why there are no coal-fired power plants in California), to “clean coal” that cut down on particulate pollution, to the current emphasis on still cleaner plants -- utilizing expensive technology still in development -- that would cut down not only on conventional air pollution but also greenhouse gas emissions.
The former action superstar has not announced this, but he has embraced the idea that California should sign no new contracts for the importation of electricity from conventional coal-fired plants, which currently supply about 15 percent of the state’s power. Instead, all new contracts must meet a standard which is equivalent to a combined cycle natural gas-fired power plant. But this will require new technologies, both in the generation of the power itself and in the disposal of the carbon waste product.
This project can spur the next generation of coal-fired electric power production in the U.S., making America’s vast reserves of coal seem much more relevant than they otherwise would in the greenhouse era. As such, it could be a critical boon to the conventional energy and utility industries. And the utilities are lining up for it. Seven Western states utilities have signed on, including three big California outfits.
But the $6 billion project is a long way off, for technological, financial, and political reasons. Last year, the start date was 2015. This year, a more current sounding 2011 or 2012. Who knows when the technology will be ready, the funding in place, the environmental and land ownership concerns about the transmission power lines resolved?
While the Frontier Line concept is very important to transition the fossil fuel energy economy of the U.S. into any greenhouse era future, it may be less important to California.
While Schwarzenegger energy czar Joe Desmond spent much of his brief tenure pushing a transmission line from Wyoming to California to bring clean coal plus a little wind, there is much that was not done here in California.
California has tremendous native renewable energy resources. But the development of these resources, right here in the Golden State that the governor loves to talk up, is lagging.
Wind power in the Tehachapis, geothermal power in the Imperial Valley, big solar electric projects in the Mohave Desert. All these resources have great potential, all of these resources are cost effective against increasingly scarce natural gas and heavily technologized coal, and all require new transmission to reach their potential.
Instead of an Old Frontier Line to bring coal power from the Mountain West to California, we need a New Frontier Line to bring renewable power from the relative wilderness areas of California into our cities. Let the governor’s next energy czar become a champion of that project.
Nukes to the people, drive the greens nuts.
The sooner the entire country switches to electro-nukes, the better off we will be. Far less dependency on overpriced petro-sourced hydrocarbon fuels and price per kilowatt hour will drop drastically.
"But the development of these resources, right here in the Golden State that the governor loves to talk up, is lagging." Because, they let 350 companies go under in PGE bankrupcy. Grey Davis was trying to lure some people in from Denmark to start new companies that the state would own an interest in. Great biz atmosphere.
Wyoming, California governors agree on power plant
ap on Bakersfield Californian |
http://www.bakersfield.com/119/story/46744.html
Wyoming and California have joined ranks in promoting Wyoming for a federally backed initiative to build the cleanest coal-powered electric generating plant.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed Monday in San Diego to create a joint task force of experts from both states to help Wyoming land the $1 billion plant, according to statements from the offices of the governors.
The plant would use a technology called integrated coal gasification combined cycle, or IGCC. The U.S. Department of Energy plans to help with the plant's design, construction and operation.
Wyoming and other states with coal reserves are bidding for the plant.
"It is my belief that, if the California electric consumers are willing to pay an appropriate rate, these facilities can be built - and built to California environmental standards - in Wyoming," Freudenthal said.
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