Coal in the News

12Nov

Overseers Flag Concerns as System Shifts to Gas, Renewables

A national surge toward natural gas and renewable energy driven by cheap gas and new government rules and policies is creating reliability concerns — especially in the Midwest, New York and Texas — and weakening buffers for blackouts, grid overseers warned today. And those problems loom even before considering the impact of U.S. EPA’s power […]
10Nov

US Clean Power Plan Poses Risks to Electricity Reliability

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan could harm the reliability of the power grid and may need to be modified before it is finalised. In an initial review released on Wednesday, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) assessed how proposed limits on greenhouse emissions from existing fossil-fuelled power stations would affect the […]
06Nov

Report Shows EPA Rule Plays ‘a Guessing Game’ with Reliability — Whitfield

The chairman of a key House Energy and Commerce subcommittee yesterday embraced the U.S. power grid overseer’s statement that U.S. EPA’s greenhouse gas proposal may endanger power supply. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) said in a statement that the North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s new report, released yesterday, underscores what he has said for months: that […]
05Nov

NERC Says Schedule for US EPA’s CO2 Rule Could Threaten Power Grid Reliability

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants has aggressive schedule and includes assumptions that may jeopardize the reliability of the US power grid, the North North American Electric Reliability Corp. said Wednesday. EPA’s proposed rule, which would to cut CO2 emissions to 30% below 2005 levels […]
31Oct

Kansas Regulators, Commission Staff Slam EPA Carbon Proposal

Utility commissioners in Kansas are the latest group to take aim at the Obama administration’s plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuel-burning power plants, calling U.S. EPA’s Clean Power Plan a federal overreach that will burden consumers and the state’s economy. In a 40-page report submitted to U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, the Kansas Corporation Commission […]
28Oct

It’s Foolish to Discard Coal as a Power Source

Michael Silver is right to cite the importance of mining to renewable-energy technologies, as well as the hypocrisy of those who support the latter (renewables) while opposing the former (mining) in “The Environmentalist’s Catch-22” (op-ed, Oct. 9). But he’s wrong to urge the elimination of traditional energy sources like coal, both from an economic and environmental perspective. […]
24Oct

Energy Cost Rise: A Pledge Obama (Unfortunately) Kept

Inflation: We’ve chastised President Obama many times for failing to live up to promises he made when running for the office. So in fairness, we want to credit him for fulfilling one of them: his pledge to raise energy costs. In early 2008, candidate Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle that “under my plan … electricity […]
21Oct

EPA Climate Plan Strips Away States’ Flexibility, Ga. Regulator Says

Georgia’s utility regulators will do whatever they can to fight U.S. EPA’s proposed carbon rule for existing power plants, the Georgia Public Service Commission chairman said yesterday. At the same time, such a decision will be left to the courts, said Chuck Eaton, speaking to a small group of energy industry professionals. “We have to […]
20Oct

SCC Says EPA Carbon Plan Could Raise Power Bills in Va. “Substantially”

Complying with the EPA’s proposed carbon emission rules would likely cost Dominion Virginia Power customers alone an extra $5.5 billion to $6 billion, the State Corporation Commission’s staff said in an unusually bluntly worded statement. The EPA’s proposed regulations would “increase substantially” the bills that all 3.6 million Virginia electricity customers pay for their power, […]
17Oct

Industry-Backed Report Says EPA Climate Rule to Cost $366B

A study commissioned by the coal industry and other business groups found that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) carbon rule for power plants could cost at least $366 billion. The analysis, written by Nera Economic Consulting, said that people in 43 states would see double-digit percentage increases in their electricity bills, with at least 20 […]