EC January 2013

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Fwd: WVNS story: New Analysis: Evidence of Climate Change Stronger Than Ever
by Paul Wilson 18 Jan '13

18 Jan '13

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 3:35 AM Subject: WVNS story: New Analysis: Evidence of Climate Change Stronger Than Ever To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> New Analysis: Evidence of Climate Change Stronger Than Ever Dan Heyman, Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/30358-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService<http://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService> Twitter: @pns_news <http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news> @pns_WV<http://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV> Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice <http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866> (01/18/13) CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Climate experts say the evidence is stronger than ever that climate change is happening, and that it comes with devastating consequences for West Virginia and the rest of the nation. A new draft of the National Climate Assessment, released this week, says the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events, are becoming more apparent. Carol Browner, former White House director of Climate and Energy, says those impacts will increase as global emissions continue to rise. "This new assessment really confirms what the scientists have been telling us and what our eyes are telling us. It's getting hotter. We're seeing more violent, more frequent storms. We're seeing impacts on the economy and we're seeing impacts on public health." The report <http://ncadac.globalchange.gov> comes as 2012 made the record books as the hottest year in U.S. history. It presents a grim outlook for future extreme weather events. Browner says we need to do more to reduce greenhouse gases. The assessment is issued every four years, and the current draft is available for public comment until April 12th. The Obama administration has implemented several regulations to curtail emissions of carbon dioxide. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first-ever carbon pollution standard for new power plants. That provoked harsh criticism from the coal industry and it's political allies, but Browner says there is much more work to be done. "The administration has already taken some important steps, but we've got to really continue, as a country, to take this issue seriously. That's what this report is telling us." Many of West Virginia’s most important business and political leaders maintain climate change is unproven and some even charge that it's a hoax. Jim Sconyers, chair of the West Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, says people need to get their heads out of the sand, especially given the dramatic damage West Virginia has suffered during recent climate events. "Climate change is real. People like to keep saying there's this side of the story and then there's the other side of the story. Well, there's no 'other side' of the story. I was just out walking in the forest today. Where I was walking the devastation is just on a scale that I have never seen before." Click here to view this story on the Public News Service RSS site and access an audio version of this and other stories: http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/30358-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/30358-1> --- To be removed from this list please send an e-mail to remove(a)publicnewsservice.org <remove(a)publicnewsservice.org?subject=remove>and put the word "remove" in the subject line. -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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e-mail messages lost
by Frank Young 16 Jan '13

16 Jan '13

Friends, I have had a serious crash of my e-mail handling system. Apparently I have lost all "Inbox" messages from about February 1, 2012 up to about January 14, 2013- almost a year of e-mail messages. Messages that I had set aside into designated "folders" appear to all be intact. But stuff in my Inbox received during that time period- some maybe 5000 messages- are gone. So if some of you are waiting for me to respond to messages you sent within that time period- especially for about the past 3 weeks- I have likely lost your messages. So if it is still important you might want to re-send your message(s) to me. These past two days I have changed to a new e-mail handling system- Microsoft Outlook. So far it seems to be working well. (Yeah, Gary Z. - it's OK to say "I told you to do that a couple years ago", because you did. I just didn't listen then! :-( Frank Young fyoung(a)mountain.net aka: frankly(a)mtparty.org

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How Long will We let Coal Plants Mercury-Poison Us?
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 14 Jan '13

14 Jan '13

How Long will We let Coal Plants Mercury-Poison Us?<http://www.juancole.com/2013/01/plants-mercury-poison.html> Posted on 01/13/2013 by Juan Mercury is a nerve poison, steady exposure to which causes all kinds of neurological and mental problems, as well as heart problems. I keep hearing public service announcements that you should not eat fish more than twice a week. Think about that. In a natural, normal world, didn’t people on the coast eat fish every day? Why avoid fish? It is because fish big enough for us to eat with profit are high on the food chain, and so concentrate toxins like mercury. But why is there so much mercury in the environment, that it is getting concentrated in our salmon? Coal-fired power plants are responsible<http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/c02c.html>for * half * of all human-caused mercury emissions annually in the US. The plants released 134,365 pounds of mercury in 2006 alone! Only 8% of plants have mercury-scrubbing capabilities in place. Concerned Scientists note that “Just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury deposited on a 25-acre lake can make the fish unsafe to eat.” A people with any self-respect would insist that all these coal-fired power plants be closed within 5 years: [image: coalmercury]<http://www.juancole.com/2013/01/plants-mercury-poison.html/coalmercury> Not only is burning coal the fastest route to catastrophic climate change, it emits mercury into our lakes and streams<http://www.southernstudies.org/2011/02/institute-index-coal-powers-mercury-…>, which then gets into our fish– as Sue Sturgis points out, citing Environment America<http://www.environmentamerica.org/reports/ame/dirty-energys-assault-our-hea…> Here are some statistics she has culled: There is * 10 times* more mercury concentration in fish now than in the 1930s * 15 % of US women of child-bearing age* have enough mercury in their bloodstream to put their offspring at risk from health effects. In 1999: percentage of women of childbearing age with inorganic mercury in their blood: 2 In 2006: that percentage * was 30 * I tear my hair out when I hear that people aren’t getting vaccinations for their children because they are afraid of autism. But emitting 134,000 pounds a year of mercury in our environment? That’s not a problem. The Union of Concerned Scientists<http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/c02c.html>adds: “Coal plants are the nation’s top source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the primary cause of global warming. In 2011, utility coal plants in the United States emitted a total of 1.7 billion tons of CO21. A typical coal plant generates 3.5 million tons of CO2 per year2.” Close them down! Close them down now! If your electric utility depends on coal, contact your city council and urge it to put in wind turbines and solar and generate its own electricity, getting off the dirty, poisonous grid! Boulder, Co. is now playing hardball<http://www.energybiz.com/article/12/12/xcel-boulder-square-over-franchise-r…>that way, Sacramento created large numbers of jobs with its green energy<http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/07/13/sacramento-region-nea…>commitments. We don’t want your dirty coal! -- William V. DePaulo, Esq. 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 Charleston, WV 25301-2163 Tel 304-342-5588 Fax 304-342-5505 william.depaulo(a)gmail.com www.passeggiata.com

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Mercury from Coal Plants, Goldmining, a Global Health Crisis: UN Environmental Program
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 14 Jan '13

14 Jan '13

Mercury from Coal Plants, Goldmining, a Global Health Crisis: UN Environmental Program<http://www.juancole.com/2013/01/emissions-goldmining-environmental.html> Posted on 01/14/2013 by Juan A new study has found that 84% of all fish<http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57563739/study-finds-unsafe-mercury-l…>have unhealthy levels of mercury! Richard Gelfond, CEO of IMAX, the film company, has had his health permanently damaged simply from eating a lot of fish. The message to take away is not never to eat fish. It is that there is too much mercury in our environment. Half of all mercury emissions in the United States come from coal-fired power plants, and a quarter of mercury released into the environment globally is from coal. Some 1200 * new * coal plants are now planned around the world, and this must not be allowed. By the way, about 10% of mercury in our environment comes from burning natural gas and petroleum and refining petroleum. So not only are hydrocarbons causing calamitous global warming, but they are responsible for over a third of our present mercury poisoning globally, and for well over half of that in the United States. The United Nations Environmental Program has just issued its [pdf] 2013 assessment of the mercury threat<http://www.unep.org/hazardoussubstances/Portals/9/Mercury/GMA%20Report/Glob…> . It finds that human-caused “emissions and releases have doubled the amount of mercury in the top 100 meters [yards] of the world’s oceans in the last 100 years. Concentrations in deeper waters have increased by only 10-25%, because of the slow transfer of mercury from surface waters into the deep oceans. In some species of Arctic marine animals, mercury content has increased by 12 times on average since the pre-industrial period. This increase implies that, on average, over 90% of the mercury in these marine animals today comes from anthropogenic [human] sources.” And, the United Nations has been meeting in Geneva on a possible new global treaty limiting mercury emissions. There are some 600 coal plants in the United States, and they should all be shut down on grounds of mercury pollution<http://www.juancole.com/2013/01/plants-mercury-poison.html>alone, but they also are the major contributor to global warming. They can now all quickly be replaced by solar and wind installations, with some natural gas if absolutely necessary. People who complain about the ‘extra cost’ of solar and wind seem not to mind, like, neurotoxins all around them, or billions of dollars of climate change damage. Besides, wind and solar are just about at grid parity with coal in many markets,and will be able to undersell it, even ignoring the externalities in the true cost of coal, in this decade. Aljazeera English <http://youtu.be/JCQokbi8Kiw> reports: Mining, distributing and burning coal should be illegal. -- William V. DePaulo, Esq. 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 Charleston, WV 25301-2163 Tel 304-342-5588 Fax 304-342-5505 william.depaulo(a)gmail.com www.passeggiata.com

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West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller to retire after term ends
by James Kotcon 14 Jan '13

14 Jan '13

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/west-virginia-sen-jay-rockefeller-retire… West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller will not seek a sixth term in the Senate, he told Politico in an interview ( http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/jay-rockefeller-to-retire-86054.html?… ). He will serve through 2014 after more than 25 years in the chamber, "I’m going to serve out my term,” the 75-year-old Rockefeller said. “It was a very hard decision for me. Once it’s made, like any hard decision, it eases up. But it was a very tough decision for me.”Rockefeller joined the Senate in 1985 after two terms as governor of West Virginia. He will make a formal announcement on Friday morning. The senator's retirement could lead to a fierce race in 2014. Democrats have had a lock on the seat since the Dwight Eisenhower administration, and an election without an incumbent could give Republicans a major opportunity in a deeply red state.

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TransAlta (Canada) gives up on carbon capture
by Jim Sconyers 11 Jan '13

11 Jan '13

A lesson here for WV? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: DAVID E ORTMAN <deortman(a)msn.com> Date: Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 1:00 AM Subject: [Coal Volunteers List] RE: TransAlta (Canada) gives up on carbon capture To: phred(a)sunlightdata.com, pjgrunt(a)gmail.com, coal-volunteers-list(a)sierraclub.org, cons-spst-globalwarm-forum(a)lists.sierraclub.org, cons-ficc-international(a)lists.sierraclub.org, Verena Owen < verena_owen(a)prodigy.net>, Robin Everett <robin.everett(a)sierraclub.org> FR: David E. Ortman, Seattle, WA TransAlta also owns the largest coal fired plant in Washington State. Former Governor Gregoire (who may be on a short list for EPA Administrator) cut a deal allowing TransAlta to run one of its coal-fired until until 2020 and the second until 2025 (12 years from now!!!). http://www.elp.com/news/2012/12/30/transalta-boss-says-economics-could-make… Electric Light and Power (Canada) December 30, 2012 TransAlta boss says economics could make carbon capture unfeasible for years; Power boss says carbon capture a no go for now Sponsored by CALGARY - With half of its electricity plants fuelled by coal, the head of TransAlta Corp. is a believer in how valuable carbon capture and storage could be for the company. But a decision in April to scrap Project Pioneer, a $1.4-billion project to capture carbon dioxide emissions from an Alberta coal plant and store them underground, has TransAlta (TSX:TA) president and CEO Dawn Farrell less optimistic about the technology's feasibility in the future. TransAlta was one of the companies backing the project. Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) and Capital Power Corp. (TSX:CPX) were the others. The idea was to sell some of carbon dioxide to nearby energy producers, who would inject the gas into their fields as a means to get more oil out of the ground. The federal and Alberta governments have been banking on carbon capture and storage to reduce the carbon footprint of the power generation and the oil and gas industries. Project Pioneer, which would have been connected to the Keephills 3 coal plant west of Edmonton, received $779 million in backing from Ottawa and Edmonton. Although an initial study found the technology worked and the capital costs were in line with expectations, Farrell said things changed as planning moved forward and other methods of oil extraction improved. "What had changed was this horizontal drilling, which has changed the cost structure of finding gas and now oil," Farrell said, in an interview with The Canadian Press. "As a result of that the cost of taking oil out of the ground ... with CO2 is now being overtaken by the cost of horizontal drilling. "Effectively what happened is the ability of the oilfields to use CO2 moved out five or 10 years and we had federal funding we needed to put in place right away." Farrell said new federal legislation on carbon emissions means TransAlta's Sundance plant will reach the end of its first lifespan in 2019. Other plants will follow in the ensuing decade. Once a plant reaches the end of its life, the company can continue to operate it with a carbon-capture retrofit or shut it down. "So 2019 is the first big decision for TransAlta," Farrell said. "If they're coming to the end of their life at the end of this decade, in 2019, I don't think they have a very good chance for retrofit unless my team can discover some other way of dealing with it." Alberta has a 1,000-year supply of low-sulphur coal, but Farrell said it still gives off double the emissions of natural gas. The cost of coal at this point continues to make it an attractive alternative, but Farrell notes the high costs of carbon-capture and the lack of a market to sell the captured carbon could put coal "out of the money" as plants reach the end of their lives under federal rules. TransAlta has power plants in Canada, the United States and Australia. Farrell said the utility is looking at further expansion in the United States in 2013 and is hoping to make some acquisitions, possibly in California, related to wind energy. -- To access the Beyond Coal Campaign Resource Portal, go to: https://sites.google.com/a/sierraclub.org/beyond-coal-resource-portal/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "#Coal-Volunteers" group. To post to this group, send email to coal-volunteers-list(a)sierraclub.org. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coal-volunteers-list+unsubscribe(a)sierraclub.org. -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: WVNS story: Solar Cheap Enough To Compete Without Subsidies In Some States
by Paul Wilson 10 Jan '13

10 Jan '13

The Economist piece on Solar Energy costs made it on to WV Public News Service. fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 3:48 AM Subject: WVNS story: Solar Cheap Enough To Compete Without Subsidies In Some States To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> Solar Cheap Enough To Compete Without Subsidies In Some States Dan Heyman, Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/30252-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService<http://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService> Twitter: @pns_news <http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news> @pns_WV<http://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV> Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice <http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866> (01/10/13) CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A sharp, long-term fall in the price of solar cells has led The Economist magazine and others to declare that in sunny areas with high electricity prices, solar power is now cheap enough to compete without government subsidies. Rory McIlmoil, program manager for the energy program at environmental consulting firm Downstream Strategies, says that applies to places such as California - but not West Virginia or the East Coast. "In those areas, solar is competing with other sources of energy that have higher electricity prices than we experience here, which makes it a lot more likely that solar can compete." The price of building a solar power plant is nearing where it would be competitive with a new coal plant of a similar size, he says. Both cost more than a natural-gas plant, but he says solar has the advantage of free fuel. "Natural gas peaker plants have other costs associated with their operation that solar power does not: High fuel and - depending on the size - high maintenance costs for your traditional power plants versus solar power plants." The solar industry still depends on significant federal subsidies, although overall, McIlmiol says, the much larger fossil-fuels industries actually receives more in tax breaks. Solar also is limited by the inconsistent nature of the sunshine, although he says power storage and flexible use of the grid are easing some of those issues. Thanks to cheap solar cells, he says, 2010 saw what was then a record level of solar power installed. "And just one year later, twice that was installed. Roughly 80 percent of the solar power that currently exists in the United States was installed just over the last three years." One central criticism of renewable-energy sources such as solar power is that they are too expensive. McIlmoil says that's rapidly changing, as solar's explosive growth shows. More from The Economist is online at economist.com<http://www.economist.com/news/21566414-alternative-energy-will-no-longer-be…>. At current growth rates, the magazine says, wind will surpass nuclear in 10 years. Click here to view this story on the Public News Service RSS site and access an audio version of this and other stories: http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/30252-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/30252-1> --- To be removed from this list please send an e-mail to remove(a)publicnewsservice.org <remove(a)publicnewsservice.org?subject=remove>and put the word "remove" in the subject line. -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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Fwd: Coal to liquid plant on schedule
by James Kotcon 10 Jan '13

10 Jan '13

I am not clear on how TransGas can say that this is "on schedule" when they don't have financing or a contractor. They claim to have "started construction" June 20, 2011, but admit it is only minor things like moving in an office trailer, so it does not seem that would meet the legal definition needed to retain their air permit. A later press release said they would "start major construction" in 2012, a later one said they would close on financing by the end of 2012, and now they say they will close in 2013, but are still negotiating with a contractor. I think we could argue that they have not met the legal requirement to start construction, and they certainly have not met the requirement to maintain construction. (Under 45-CSR-13, if they have not started, or halt construction, for 18 months, the air permit can be suspended.) Thanks to Viv for keeping up on the latest PR. JBK >>> "Vivian Stockman" <vivian(a)ohvec.org> 1/10/2013 8:09 AM >>> Coal to liquid plant on schedule By Jennifer Smith in News | January 09, 2013 at 11:43AM http://wvmetronews.com/coal-to-liquid-plant-on-schedule/ A multi-billion dollar coal to liquid plant in Mingo County is still on schedule despite some hurdles. TransGas Development Systems announced the project back in 2008, which will be the largest coal to liquid plant in the U.S. And while there’s no bricks and mortar to judge the progress, Randy Harris, with the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority, says they’re moving forward. “We’re still well under the window of time it takes to take a project from concept to this stage,” says Harris. The design for the $4-billion project, located near Gilbert, is already complete. Site preparations are underway. TransGas is negotiating with the main contractor. “In some regards like permitting, we’re well ahead of our original schedule,” says Harris. “In other aspects, like financing, the uncertainty of the election slowed down the whole process,” according to Harris. “People just weren’t prepared to make decisions.” The EPA has waged a war on coal over the past three years with the blessing of President Barack Obama. Harris says that makes a lot of people with the money to invest a little skittish. “It has slowed down the investment community. Bankers don’t understand the difference between a coal fired plant and a chemical plant like we are. They just look at it and say it’s all coal,” explains Harris. But he says there’s a big difference between burning coal for fuel and liquifying coal into gasoline, petroleum gas and propane. He says when they sit potential buyers down and explain the difference most of that concern goes away. Once the financing is in place, construction can get underway. “Right now all the contractors are telling us that it’s going to take about 3 and a half years to go from where we are now to commissioning, which is the point where it’s turned over from the construction company to the [plant] operators.” That means the TransGas plant should be up and running in late 2016, early 2017.

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Solar is competitive without subsidies in 2013
by James Kotcon 10 Jan '13

10 Jan '13

Available at: http://www.economist.com/news/21566414-alternative-energy-will-no-longer-be… JBK Sunny uplands Alternative energy will no longer be alternative Nov 21st 2012 | from The World In 2013 print edition Rebranding is always a tricky exercise, but for one field of technology 2013 will be the year when its proponents need to bite the bullet and do it. That field is alternative energy. The word “alternative”, with its connotations of hand-wringing greenery and a need for taxpayer subsidy, has to go. And in 2013 it will. “Renewable” power will start to be seen as normal. Wind farms already provide 2% of the world’s electricity, and their capacity is doubling every three years. If that growth rate is maintained, wind power will overtake nuclear’s contribution to the world’s energy accounts in about a decade. Though it still has its opponents, wind is thus already a grown-up technology. But it is in the field of solar energy, currently only a quarter of a percent of the planet’s electricity supply, but which grew 86% last year, that the biggest shift of attitude will be seen, for sunlight has the potential to disrupt the electricity market completely. The underlying cause of this disruption is a phenomenon that solar’s supporters call Swanson’s law, in imitation of Moore’s law of transistor cost. Moore’s law suggests that the size of transistors (and also their cost) halves every 18 months or so. Swanson’s law, named after Richard Swanson, the founder of SunPower, a big American solar-cell manufacturer, suggests that the cost of the photovoltaic cells needed to generate solar power falls by 20% with each doubling of global manufacturing capacity. The upshot (see chart) is that the modules used to make solar-power plants now cost less than a dollar per watt of capacity. Power-station construction costs can add $4 to that, but these, too, are falling as builders work out how to do the job better. And running a solar power station is cheap because the fuel is free. Related topics Solar energy United States Industries Electricity companies Utilities Coal-fired plants, for comparison, cost about $3 a watt to build in the United States, and natural-gas plants cost $1. But that is before the fuel to run them is bought. In sunny regions such as California, then, photovoltaic power could already compete without subsidy with the more expensive parts of the traditional power market, such as the natural-gas-fired “peaker” plants kept on stand-by to meet surges in demand. Moreover, technological developments that have been proved in the laboratory but have not yet moved into the factory mean Swanson’s law still has many years to run. Running a solar power station is cheap because the fuel is free Comparing the cost of wind and solar power with that of coal- and gas-fired electricity generation is more than just a matter of comparing the costs of the plant and the fuel, of course. Reliability of supply is a crucial factor, for the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow. But the problem of reliability is the subject of intensive research. Many organisations, both academic and commercial, are working on ways to store electricity when it is in surplus, so that it can be used when it is scarce. Progress is particularly likely during 2013 in the field of flow batteries. These devices, hybrids between traditional batteries and fuel cells, use liquid electrolytes, often made from cheap materials such as iron, to squirrel away huge amounts of energy in chemical form. “Grid-scale” storage of this or some other sort is the second way, after Swanson’s law, that the economics of renewable energy will be transformed. One consequence of all this progress is that subsidies for wind and solar power have fallen over recent years. In 2013, they will fall further. Though subsidies will not disappear entirely, the so-called alternatives will be seen to stand on their own feet in a way that was not true in the past. That will give them political clout and lead to questions about the subventions which more traditional forms of power generation enjoy (coal production, for example, is heavily subsidised in parts of Europe). Enlarge Fossil-fuel-powered electricity will not be pushed aside quickly. Fracking, a technological breakthrough which enables natural gas to be extracted cheaply from shale, means that gas-fired power stations, which already produce a fifth of the world’s electricity, will keep the pressure on wind and solar to get better still. But even if natural gas were free, no Swanson’s law-like process applies to the plant required to turn it into electricity. Nuclear power is not a realistic alternative. It is too unpopular and the capital costs are huge. And coal’s days seem numbered. In America, the share of electricity generated from coal has fallen from almost 80% in the mid-1980s to less than a third in April 2012, and coal-fired power stations are closing in droves. It may take longer to make the change in China and India, where demand for power is growing almost insatiably, and where the grids to take that power from windy and sunny places to the cities are less developed than in rich countries. In the end, though, they too will change as the alternatives become normal, and what was once normal becomes quaintly old-fashioned. Geoffrey Carr: science editor, The Economist from The World In 2013 print edition

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IOGA Intervenes in First Energy Harrison case
by James Kotcon 09 Jan '13

09 Jan '13

THE STATE JOURNAL IOGA wants gas represented fairly in Mon Power coal gen case Posted: Jan 07, 2013 6:38 PM EST Updated: Jan 08, 2013 11:57 AM EST By Pam Kasey West Virginia natural gas producers want a say in Mon Power's proposal to buy coal-fired generation — but not to argue against it. "What we're not interested in doing is kicking the coal industry when they're down," said Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia President Dennis Xander. Mon Power has a large deficit in generation capacity to serve its customers and those of Potomac Edison, IOGA reiterated in its Jan. 4 petition with the Public Service Commission of West Virginia to intervene in the case for Mon Power's proposed solution. The utility proposes to increase its installed capacity by almost 1,500 megawatts, primarily through the acquisition of the 80 percent of the coal-fired Harrison Power Station that it does not already own. "IOGA desires the opportunity to express its views to the commission about using natural gas as an inexpensive, clean and reliable fuel for power generation, and believes that its views will materially assist the commission in reaching a decision in this case," IOGA wrote in its petition. That doesn't mean IOGA is going to argue that natural gas would be better, Xander said. "We don't intend to take any kind of position in that," he said. "However, to the extent that the commission wants someone to step up and say, ‘Hey, look, the industry has an abundance of inexpensive, clean fuel that is an alternative,' we'll do that." IOGA also wants to be sure to keep the record straight on what natural gas can and cannot do in the electric power industry. "You're going to see a whole bunch of spreadsheets come out where people are going to calculate what the cost per kilowatt-hour would be under various scenarios," he predicted from long experience. "By intervening, we want to make sure whatever information the commission gets is right." If the suggestion came up that the Harrison plant should pursue gas co-firing — burning natural gas with coal, something FirstEnergy already is considering ( http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/energy/2012/10/firstenergy-consi… ) at Harrison — IOGA would be behind that idea, Xander said. "But we did not intervene for the purpose of trying to replace coal with natural gas," he said. "West Virginia needs coal jobs and coal severance taxes." Follow Mon Power's generation resource transaction case on the PSC's website ( http://www.psc.state.wv.us/ ): case number 12-1571.

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EC January 2013