EPA's Looming Blackouts

IBD Editorials ^ | August 22, 2011 | Staff

[metmom]

Survival ping.

[lentulusgracchus]

It's getting close to time to "just say NO!" to the EPA.

Time for a new President who'll immediately RIF the Red/Green Clintonoid Obamabots out of the EPA and knock down just a ton of its functions and personnel.

Convenience of the Government, and all.

[familyop]

"The problem with wind of course is the it has a ridiculously low capacity factor (below 35%) even in good wind locations..."

That's irrelevant. Dollars spent per watts provided does count--not the amount of wind that a turbine uses. Granted, though, several of the big, corporate government wind farms aren't very cost effective.

"...and very poor reliability."

Only in commercial rigs built by certified, authorized and approved professionals. There are small (10-20' rotor) homebuilt turbines that use trailer hubs and large, heavy alternators. They're built by men (and beer), and they work fine in areas with frequent high winds (especially those connected to the new MidNite Classic MPPT controller for wind turbines--over twice the current for batteries). I'm in one of those areas.

It is true that, wind turbines, as they are, aren't good sources of energy for most places (not enough wind enough of the time). They work fine in my area, but most people don't like the extreme winds, thin air or cold.

And BTW, PV solar is much nicer for a lazy man at home here (over 300 sun days per year, too)--very low maintenance.

[MarkL]

I wonder what's going to happen in Kansas? Not far from here is the La Cygne coal fired power plant. It's one of the biggest, highest capacity coal fired plants in the world. In fact, its output with both boilers and turbines going is in the nuclear plant range, La Cygne puts out nearly 1.6 Gw (with both boilers) versus a bit less than 1.2 Gw for the Wolf Creek nuclear reactor. According to some leftist enviro-whackos, it was the 16th dirtiest power plant in the country.) The EPA is demanding massive environmental retrofitting before June, 2015.

If La Cygne gets shut down, it will be very dark and intemperate for a large part of eastern KS and western MO.

Mark

[DTogo]

Washington DC gets its power from the regional grid. If that regional grid goes down, getting it back up is not like flipping a switch. Not to mention the mayhem that could occur in the dark - they flash mob stores when the lights are on!

[familyop]

If I were up there, I’d be stocking up for years ahead on wood and using a box stove. ...but not the stove at Harbor Freight (the Chinaman store). The big lid on top falls off of that stove too easily, when it’s slid to the side for opening. A big wood furnace would be nice for a bigger house, for anyone who could afford it. As for lights, LED bulbs work in cold weather (unlike florescents) and might save on electric bills. They should last a long time, too, but they’re still expensive (ones I’ve seen about $30, give or take).

Steam engines are fun, but they’re also very regulated and expensive.

[CapnJack]

You think the riots in England were bad, wait till US cities go dark. It will be a friggen free-for-all like you have never seen.

[riri]

Driving on the Navajo reservation, it is not uncommon to see little old ladies on the sides of the road selling coal.

[familyop]

"Has nothing to do with energy and everything to do with controlling people."

Yep. Many of the elite folks will try to keep everyone else as busy and uncompetitive as they can. I know of public school teachers, police, planners, administrators and other government employees and retirees, who have invested in both electric and gas energy companies. If one kind of energy goes up, they push to have rates in the other hiked. ...same people who push to regulate against any kind of productive business that a man might try to start (local zoning against tiny manufacturing, regulations and taxes against small agriculture, etc.).

[MarkL]

— why does our gubamint hate US?

The government doesn't hate us. It just wants to make sure the we have no doubt exactly who's in charge. And if that means eliminating the "undesirables..." Well, no big deal, since they're undesirable anyway, right?

Mark

[dusttoyou]

Cruise through West Texas, you’ll more WindGen than anywhere else in USA.

Everyone including Perry knows its not reliable, but pretty cheap where you have lots of wind.

Why woudln’t Perry talk nice about a big private industry in Texas? No where has Perry praised it as being the ANSWER, its just another answer that goes along with coal, lignite and Natural Gas.

The major problem with more Wind Gen is transmission and Perry didn’t mandate Elect. Companies build lines to either king Ranch or T-Boone’s field of wind dreams.

With a majority of Generation in Texas from coal and lignite, I will not be surprised when Perry tells the EPA and nobama to Don’T Mess With Texas on their latest progressive crap. And equally unsurprised when nobama backs down.

In a way I think this EPA rule on such short and unreasonable notice, being just another nobama scare tactic which they will not enforce in an election year.

[lentulusgracchus]

The reason there are no shale plays indicated SE of the Appalachian front in SE US is that that terrane is actually a left-behind piece of the African shelf that was sutured to the North American plate during the Carboniferous (Mississippian and Pennsylvanian) Hercynian Orogeny and suturing event that saw all the continents joined into one supercontinent, Pangaea.

When Pangaea rifted beginning in the Triassic (the Triassic exposures in the Hudson River bluffs near New York City are part of this system), the spreading center was located to the east, and the rift developed to the east over the spreading center, of the old suture. Therefore, most of Georgia used to be part of the Moroccan continental shelf.

There are rifted Paleozoic basins to the east and south of the Hercynian suture (called the Broward Fault Zone, in Georgia and North Carolina, which is located underneath the Chattahoochee River where it flows NE-SW through suburban Atlanta, at the foot of Vinings Mountain). These wrench-fold basins formed during the convergence, suturing and deformation of the African shelf of the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Periods.

The halves of the basins that remained with Africa produce hydrocarbons (in Algeria, e.g.), but are "immature" in terms of their kerogen-maturation histories.

Close to the suture, heat flow from the convergence cycle has "fried" the sedimentary column (which is largely low-grade metamorphics now in the Piedmont: which is why the Piedmont is the Piedmont, and the Fall Line exists at the boundary of the Paleozoic metasediments and the unconsolidated Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments of the Atlantic Coastal Plain).

In between Africa and the Piedmont there is a broad belt of thermally mature, rifted half-basins which have been outlined structurally by interrupted exploration in the 70's but are still largely unexplored because of political interference (NIMBY politics). The SE Georgia Embayment is one of these old wrench-folded basins, and it lies just offshore Savannah, Georgia, and a historically underserved (and overpriced) natural-gas market whose utilities continue to burn coal as a result.

Irrespective of shale-trend hydrocarbon exploration, the basins (and their shales) of the Atlantic margin are a very fat exploration target that has been "on the shelf" politically and underexplored for 50 years.

[cripplecreek]

And that private industry intends to feed on the rest on the nation like a vampire. Why build manufacturing plants if you don’t intend to sell the windmills.

[AGreatPer]

"Can someone more knowledgeable please elaborate or correct me?"

You are correct. About 9% of CURRENT coal sources going under.

Here is what is disturbing. New coal mines in 5 years - 0.
Shutting down now -3.

One billion dollar (10 year project) steel mill in Clairton, PA off the books (US STEEL) because of no coal available from WVA.

[Sea Parrot]

Bad as it would be, I hope the power companies shut down their coal fired plants very, very, rapidly.

It would show the fallacy of the liberals green power and maybe finally wake the sheeple up.

[LonePalm]

The 0bama administration has turned the EPA from the Environmental Protection Agency into the Economic Prevention Agency.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[savedbygrace]

And they will blame it on somebody, or something, else. They will never accept blame for anything they screw up.

They are little rebellious children playing in the real world, and they mistakenly have been given great power over regular people.

They are slack-jawed idiots in expensive suits.

[Chode]

where...

Where will we draw the line?

When will we say enough??

What will finally provoke spontaneous direction action???

[WHBates]

That's irrelevant. Dollars spent per watts provided does count--not the amount of wind that a turbine uses.

That is what capacity factor measures. For example if you need and buy a 1MW turbine and only get 350KW your not getting your dollars worth.

Wind Turbines of all types are maintenance headaches.

This thread was about the EPA regulations closing coal plants. Wind turbines and Solar are nothing more than tax dodges that can not compete without huge subsidies even on a small scale. If you want one that is fine but don't expect me to pay for either one.

[rustbucket]

The major problem with more Wind Gen is transmission and Perry didn’t mandate Elect. Companies build lines to either king Ranch or T-Boone’s field of wind dreams.

??? I was down on the King Ranch earlier this year. They told me that the King Ranch was fighting against wind turbines; didn't want them on their ranch or nearby.