Thread: Coal industry, target of new EPA rules, expands exports

Coal industry, target of new EPA rules, expands exports

Wendy Koch, USA TODAY 5:49 p.m. EDT June 25, 2013

While President Obama aims to crack down on coal-fired power plants, the coal industry finds lucrative and booming markets abroad, even in developed countries such as Germany and Japan.


A coal mine in Wright, Wyo.(Photo: Matthew Brown, AP file)
Story Highlights

• Coal industry looks abroad to expand sales as U.S. market toughens
• Obama seeks to crack down on pollution from new and existing coal plants
• Industry criticizes Obama plan, but environmental groups welcome it

The U.S. coal industry, under increasing pressure at home after President Obama's call Tuesday for tougher anti-pollution rules, is ratcheting up a more promising part of its business: exports.
Coal exports set a monthly record in March, driven largely by rising demand from its top customer, China, and other Asian countries, according to the most recent data from the Energy information Administration. While domestic consumption has had recent dips, exports have steadily climbed — from 39.6 million short tons in 2002 to a record 125.7 million short tons last year.
"Many coal producers are looking offshore as a way to offset softer markets in the United States," says Luke Popovich, spokesman of the National Mining Association. He says U.S. demand for coal has dipped because of relatively low natural gas prices and electric use, but he expects it will rise again. He says federal regulations on coal-fired power plants are "a more lingering problem."
Popovich says Obama's new proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. coal-fired power plants will do little to help the climate, because increasing amounts of coal are being burned worldwide.
As part of his plan to tackle climate change, Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday to work with states and industry to develop carbon pollution standards for existing power plants. His administration proposed such limits for new plants last year but delayed issuing final rules in April.
"We limit the amount of toxic chemicals like mercury and sulfur and arsenic in our air or our water, but power plants can still dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into the air for free. That's not right, that's not safe, and it needs to stop," Obama said in a speech at Georgetown University. He said technological advances can help reduce pollution by capturing and storing carbon so it's not emitted into the air.
Obama said the United States can't go it alone. "I'm calling for an end of public financing for new coal plants overseas — unless they deploy carbon-capture technologies. ... I urge other countries to join this effort," he said, adding that his administration will launch talks to help other countries build a low-carbon economy.
Environmentalists, who had been pressuring Obama to do more on climate change, welcomed his remarks.
'Power plants need to be cleaned up," says David Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which sought rules on existing plants in a report this year. His group says power plants account for 40% of the nation's carbon footprint
"This is a no-brainer opportunity," Hawkins says, adding Obama has the authority under the Clean Air Act to limit greenhouse gas emissions and thus doesn't need Congress' approval.
The coal industry criticized Obama's plan, saying additional regulations could raise energy prices and shutter more power plants.
"If the Obama administration fails to recognize the environmental progress the industry has made and continues to adopt more regulations, coal power could cease to exist which would be devastating for our economy," Robert M. Duncan, president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, said in a statement. His group says 15% of plants plan to close because of existing EPA rules and more will be forced to follow with new limits.
The U.S. Department of Energy forecasts that coal, the largest single source of U.S. electricity, will provide a shrinking share of such power in the future — from 51% in 2003, to 42% in 2011 and 35% in 2040.
Coal faces a rosier future abroad. Its demand will increase in every region of the world except in the USA, according to a December report by the International Energy Agency. It provides 40% of the world's electricity, similar to its U.S. share.
"The world will burn around 1.2 billion more tons of coal per year by 2017 compared to today – equivalent to the current coal consumption of Russia and the United States combined," IEA's Maria van der Hoeven said in announcing the findings. "Coal's share of the global energy mix continues to grow each year, and if no changes are made to current policies, coal will catch oil within a decade."
Popovich says coal demand is rising even in developed countries such as Germany and Japan that are cutting back on nuclear power.
The Obama administration has boosted research funding for capture and sequestration technology and launched demonstration projects. Yet no U.S. power plant has installed such technology, which will be needed for coal-fired power plants to meet the EPA's proposed standard for new plants.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/25/coal-industry-exports-obama/2455903/

Obama says attack!!!!! Hmmmm Power plants need to be cleaned up, or is to be cleaned out!!!!!

ELECTRICITY:

Natural gas, renewable energy will power the future Texas grid -- study

Daniel Cusick, E&E reporter
ClimateWire: Wednesday, June 12, 2013
The path to low-carbon electricity generation in Texas will likely require the co-development and integration of both natural gas and renewable energy resources like wind and solar power, a new research report commissioned by the Texas Clean Energy Coalition has found.
The white paper, prepared by the Brattle Group for the Austin-based nonprofit, states that despite perceived competition between natural gas and renewable energy resources in Texas, the reality is the two sectors can aid each other's growth and can eventually help Texas meet rising energy demand in an era of tighter environmental controls.
"Low-priced natural gas and clean renewable resources are complementary, not competing, resources to displace other fuels over the long term. Coordinated development of both will lead to a win-win for Texas and the environment," Kip Averitt, chairman of the Texas Clean Energy Coalition, said in a statement announcing the results of the Brattle Group analysis.
The report examined conditions across the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) territory, which has some of the nation's greatest wind power capacity and has undergone an unprecedented boom in natural gas production aided by hydraulic fracturing.
Some have asserted that an abundance of inexpensive natural gas will displace renewable energy, thus keeping Texas from fully developing its extensive wind and solar resources.
The Brattle analysis challenges that conclusion, asserting instead that "in the short run, low gas prices are extremely unlikely to change the fact that existing renewables will nearly always have priority over gas-fired plants since, due to the absence of fuel costs, their variable costs are lower than those of essentially all other resources."
And longer term, the analysis finds, new gas-fired power plants may compete with wind and solar power, but such conditions will be predicated on fluctuation in coal and gas prices, shifts in federal and state energy and environmental policies, transmission development in ERCOT's territory, and technological advances in wind and solar generation that could further drive down the costs of such resources.
A marriage that replaces coal

"In addition," the report states, "it is possible that in the long run some combination of renewables and gas will displace existing coal-fired generation."
Besides the air pollution benefits that come with reduced reliance on coal, Brattle researchers note that natural gas and renewables are well-matched energy resources because gas-fired generation can be more easily dispatched to account for the intermittency of wind and solar power.
Peter Fox-Penner, a co-author of the Brattle study, also noted that cheap natural gas might help renewable energy in a forward-looking sense because blending low-cost gas generation with the higher costs of new renewables lowers the total rate impact on consumers.
"The cost of both wind and solar power has decreased significantly, but they are still not necessarily the lowest cost options, at least not without some explicit consideration of greenhouse gas emissions or continued federal subsidies such as the [production tax credit]," the report states. "However, due to low natural gas prices, electricity bills as a percentage of household income are near their historical lows.
"Consequently, increased levels of a combination of renewable energy and new lower-cost gas power can likely be accomplished without materially increasing the share of income Texans have to dedicate to paying for electricity relative to the past," the report states.
Ron Seidel, principal with RBS Energy Consulting and a well-known expert on Texas electricity markets, said in an email that most of the Brattle Group findings were sound, though he noted that most of the new natural gas-fired generation in ERCOT's territory comprises combined cycle plants that are less flexible than simple cycle gas plants when it comes to backup power for intermittent sources like wind or solar.
"As renewables increase, flexible and controllable generation resources will have to increase as well if the ERCOT system is to maintain the desired level of reliability," said Seidel, who is also on the board of the Dallas-based Principal Solar Institute. He further noted that solar photovoltaic technologies "promise to be much more synergistic with load than wind power has been" and that "dispersed solar resources will be much less subject to variability than wind -- especially during peak periods."
Lastly, Seidel stressed that analyses relying on ERCOT's Long Term Assessment study for transmission can be useful to make points about generation needs, but neither ERCOT nor the Public Utilities Commission has control over the developers of new power plants.
Concerns about summer heat wave

Spiking electricity rates have been a major concern in Texas as the state struggles to balance electricity supply and demand, especially during periods of peak summertime usage. ERCOT, which oversees the electricity grid for most of the state, has warned that its power reserves could be severely tested this summer if intense prolonged heat waves like those of the past few years occur across the state.
Warnings about summer weather have already driven up wholesale on-peak electricity prices in ERCOT's territory by more than 9 percent, according to a recent Platts analysis. And the Texas Public Utility Commission on June 1 increased the cap on wholesale electricity prices from $4,500 to $5,000 per megawatt-hour, reflecting the state's tight power supply margins.
The higher wholesale prices should help motivate power producers to build more capacity in ERCOT's territory, but they also place greater strain on electricity retailers that must absorb the higher costs or pass them along to customers via rate increases.
One investment group, Panda Power Funds of Dallas, has begun construction on two identical 750-megawatt gas-fired combined cycle power plants in Sherman and Temple, Texas, but those projects are not expected to be completed until 2014. Another 700 MW gas-fired plant being developed jointly by Bechtel Corp. and Coronado Power Ventures is set to begin construction later this year near Harlingen in south Texas, according to developers.
The state will also host one of the nation's only "clean coal" plants with the expected completion of Summit Power Group LLC's 400 MW Texas Clean Energy Project near Odessa. That facility will use integrated gasification combined cycle technology along with carbon capture and storage to trap emissions of carbon dioxide.
While Texas' need for reliable base-load power remains acute, ERCOT reported last month that electricity generated from renewable resources increased 7 percent in 2012, while capacity from renewable resources increased 16 percent. Gains were particularly strong in the solar sector, which saw a 265 percent increase in capacity, from 36,580 MW to 133,642 MW. Wind energy remained the dominant nonfossil energy resource in Texas, however, at 32.5 million MW, up 5 percent from 2011.

http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059982682

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Remember "DRILL BABY DRILL". That was the republican call to use more OIL. If they use less coal to power energy plants they will use more OIL and GAS, just like the republicans were demanding.

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