Category Archives: News
Renewing Colorado: How Green Energy is Working There
In six years, Colorado has diversified its electricity mix and built a thriving renewable energy industry while maintaining stable electricity bills. We have seen the cost of renewable energy credits for large photovoltaic solar projects decline by 75 percent, and wind in Colorado is now a least-cost energy resource. Continue reading
U.S. Elections vs. the Environment: The Stigma of Successful Regulation
The current administration’s environmental policies have frequently been a disappointment, but the choice in the November elections seems sure to be between disappointment and disaster. Continue reading
Clean Air Advocates Cheer Court Decision on Kansas Coal Plant Expansion
Much of Sunflower’s financial struggles stem from overbuilding capacity at their existing unit, Holcomb I, which is a scenario that could be repeated if Holcomb II is constructed since neither Sunflower nor Tri-State, the Colorado partner, has demonstrated the project is needed. Continue reading
Unequal Risks and Benefits for Citizens in Six States on Keystone XL Pipeline Route
In Kansas, for example, lawmakers gave TransCanada a 10-year tax exemption, which means the state won’t receive any property tax revenue from the pipeline. Meanwhile, each of the other five states—Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas—would earn between $14 million and $63 million a year, according to U.S. State Department estimates. Continue reading
Industry Wields Sway Over Air Pollution Rules, Enforcement
Sunflower Electric’s Kansas permit success (to date) is a telling snapshot of how, when industry flexes its muscles over Clean Air Act issues, it often wins. From Kansas to Louisiana to Texas, Wisconsin and Ohio, community groups have fought new plants, expansions and chronic emissions – only to see industry score victories with regulators and politicians. Continue reading
EPA Issues First National Standards for Mercury Pollution from Power Plants
More than 20 years ago, a bipartisan Congress passed the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and mandated that EPA require control of toxic air pollutants including mercury. To meet this requirement, EPA worked extensively with stakeholders, including industry, to minimize cost and maximize flexibilities in these final standards. There were more than 900,000 public comments that helped inform the final standards being announced today.
EPA estimates that the new safeguards will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year. The standards will also help America’s children grow up healthier – preventing 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and about 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year. Continue reading
Are Coal Power Plants Now Too Expensive to Pursue?
A coal project starting today might well be nearing completion just in time for its obsolescence. There’s no guarantee for anyone, but those that tie themselves up with enormous financial commitments to centralized projects that do not support the emerging paradigm are sure to have a tougher time surviving. Continue reading
Company Suspends Plan for Northeast Arkansas Power Plant
A power plant developer said Monday it would suspend plans for a new coal-fired unit in northeastern Arkansas for at least five years and stop efforts altogether to build a facility in southern Georgia. The intent at Plum Point is a five-year hold and poor market conditions made it easy to agree to the delay. Continue reading
Coal Power Produces Majority of North America’s Emissions
Research from the report shows power plants contribute 33% of the region’s greenhouse gas emissions, and the majority of those emissions can be tied to the combustion of coal. For the U.S. and Canada, coal-fired power plants alone are responsible for 98% of all mercury released from fossil-fuel electric generation and 88% in Mexico. Continue reading
