China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants

China’s frenetic construction of coal-fired power plants has raised worries around the world about the effect on climate change. China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe and Japan combined, making it the world’s largest emitter of gases that are warming the planet.

But largely missing in the hand-wringing is this: China has emerged in the past two years as the world’s leading builder of more efficient, less polluting coal power plants, mastering the technology and driving down the cost.

While the United States is still debating whether to build a more efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses extremely hot steam, China has begun building such plants at a rate of one a month.

The next 4 years are not looking good for coal.

Obama hates red people

Navajo Tribe Eyes Coal Plant As Economic Savior

When the coal-fired, air-polluting Mohave Generating Station was forced to close in 2005, the Navajo tribe paid the price. The plant ran on coal mined by Peabody Energy (nyse: BTU - news - people ) from Navajo lands 270 miles away in Arizona. The closing wiped out $40 million from the Navajo's annual budget, a 25% slash. The unemployment rate today among the 200,000 Navajo is 50%. "Crime is up, drug use is up. I'm losing people every day," says Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr.

So the tribe, with help from New York power speculator Sithe Global, wants to build an ultraclean $3.5 billion power plant on tribal land in New Mexico near Four Corners. But putting up a coal plant these days involves a struggle, and if anything, federal oversight means it's even harder to build a power plant on a reservation than off it. The tribe's opponents: the Sierra Club and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, among others.
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The Environmental Protection Agency says the Desert Rock Energy Project, as the Navajo plant is dubbed, would be one of the cleanest coal plants in the nation. The 1.5-gigawatt monster would emit 0.26 grams of sulfur dioxide per kilowatt-hour generated, 20% as much as an average coal plant. Situated adjacent to a mine operated by bhp Billiton, it would bring the tribe at least $50 million a year in royalties and tax revenue while creating 1,000 construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs.

EPA withdraws permit for massive Navajo coal plant

U.S. environmental regulators said they have withdrawn a permit for a massive coal-fired power plant that had been scheduled to be built on the Navajo Nation to send electricity to populated areas to the West.

The Environmental Protection Agency late on Monday withdrew the air permit that was issued last summer for the proposed 1,500 megawatt Desert Rock power plant. Sithe Global Power, LLC had planned to build the plant in northwestern New Mexico and send its power to rapidly-growing cities in Arizona and Nevada.

The regulators found the permit was issued before complete analysis of its emissions and impact on endangered species.

The move was another example of President Barack Obama's administration cracking down on coal

I'm thinking the land belongs to the Navajo and they should be able to build any damn thing they want. I don't recall them asking to be part of the United States but were subjected to it.

BTW as far as the red people comment my Great Great Grandmother on both sides was full blooded Cherokee so I am playing my own damn race card.

US Interior Secretary living in fantasy land

Salazar: Eastern wind could replace coal for power

Salazar said ocean winds along the East Coast can generate 1 million megawatts of power, roughly the equivalent of 3,000 medium-sized coal-fired power plants, or nearly five times the number of coal plants now operating in the United States, according to the Energy Department.

Salazar could not estimate how many windmills might be needed to generate 1 million megawatts of power, saying it would depend on their size and how far from the coast they were located.
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New Jersey is tripling the amount of wind power it plans to use by 2020 to 3,000 megawatts, or 13 percent of New Jersey's total energy. In October, Garden State Offshore Energy, a joint venture of PSE&G Renewable Generation and Deepwater Wind, was chosen to build a $1 billion, 345 megawatt wind farm in the ocean about 16 miles southeast of Atlantic City.

Want to guess how much it would cost to plant all those windmills in the ocean?

Not hard if $1 billion buys you 345 megawatts then 3000 megawatts would be around $10 billion if that also pays for the lines.

Spencer Co Indiana coal-to-gas plant back on?

Spencer County coal-to-gas plant gets boost from legislators

Good! I bet the Valley Watch has its panties in a bunch now.

Kentucky on cutting edge of CO2 storage

Work begins on W. Ky. carbon storage project

The drilling pad has been constructed at the Hancock County site and the road up to the pad has been built, said Dave Williams, a principal investigator for the project.

The Kentucky Geological Survey will inject carbon dioxide into an 8,000-foot-deep well to study the potential of storing carbon dioxide in the earth.

Sounds interesting.

Small victory for coal?

E.P.A. Ruling Could Speed Up Approval of Coal Plants

Officials weighing federal applications by utilities to build new coal-fired power plants cannot consider their greenhouse gas output, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency ruled late Thursday. Some environmentalists fear the decision will clear the way for the approval of several such plants in the last days of the Bush administration.

One can only hope since many of these plants have been on the shelf longer than Bush has been in office.

From Wired: Oil Is Not the Climate Change Culprit — It's All About Coal

Oil Is Not the Climate Change Culprit — It's All About Coal

Well that doesn't sound good for coal or does it. Read all the way down to the bottom of the article and you find this gem:

The real global warming culprit — as James Hansen and his colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies have long argued — is burning coal to generate electricity.

"Oil and gas by themselves don't have enough carbon to keep us in the dangerous zone [of global warming] for very long," said Pushker Kharecha, a scientist and colleague of Hansen at NASA GISS.

While both Kharecha and Caldeira stopped short of saying that the world's oil usage didn't matter, Caldeira seemed to capture their joint sentiment when he called the combustion of oil a "second-order effect."

Liquid fuels are so relatively insignificant that no matter what, nothing we put in our cars is likely to change the basic story of climate change. Even if oil ran out tomorrow and humans began converting coal in its solid form to a liquid you could put in a car — a worst-case scenario for environmentalists — the global warming contribution of that fuel is almost negligible.

Negligible.

Coal-to-Gas Facility proposed for Western Kentucky

ConocoPhillips and Peabody Energy Select Site in Muhlenberg County, Ky., to Develop Coal-to-Gas Facility

ConocoPhillips and Peabody Energy today announced the filing of an air permit with the Commonwealth of Kentucky to site a state-of-the-art coal-to-natural-gas facility near Central City in Muhlenberg County. The filing is a major step toward advancing development of the project into the next phase of evaluation.

The facility, to be known as Kentucky NewGas, is expected to produce enough energy to provide for nearly three quarters of a million Midwest homes. If approved, the project could also re-energize the regional economy by creating 1,200 skilled jobs during a four-year construction process, 500 long-term jobs and nearly $100 million in regional economic benefits each year.

"Greater use of Kentucky coal in clean energy projects is the ultimate solution for re-energizing our regional economy, creating thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in direct economic benefits over the long term," said Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. "Projects like this demonstrate Kentucky's global leadership in advancing clean energy projects, and they enjoy rock solid support: More than 80 percent of Kentucky residents support coal gasification, which mirrors strong national support for coal."

I have read elsewhere it could take up to 2 years for the permits to get ironed out. Maybe if Gov. Beshear favors this project we could fast track these permits.

Of course not everyone is happy about energy dependence or jobs for Western Kentucky:

Opposition emerges

Environmentalist John Blair of Valley Watch in Evansville said he was "thrilled" that Peabody is dropping the Thoroughbred power plant project, which he and other groups had fought in court.

But he questioned the economics of making synthetic gas, and said "(coal) gasification has been one of the dirtiest processes ever." Blair pledged to fight the Kentucky NewGas project with the same energy Valley Watch fought the Thoroughbred power plant.

I haven't seen much that assclown is in support of. Never mind that:

The companies say the plant would have less than 5 percent of the emissions of a traditional coal-fired power plant and would be capable of capturing carbon dioxide for permanent underground storage if federal laws someday require.

Indiana Coal-Gas project toast

Coal-gas project shelved

The developer of a $2 billion coal-to-gas plant proposed for Spencer County, Ind., has shelved the project — at least for now.

The end of contract negotiations comes amid uncertainty over what the new Congress or the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama might require of coal plants, in terms of limiting their greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide. The likelihood that coal plants might have to capture the carbon dioxide and inject it underground, at unknown costs, adds to the uncertainty.

"That could have an impact on the price of gas this (plant) could yield, especially if the plant would have to capture carbon. That could impact the capital costs," said Chase Kelley, Vectren Corp. communications director.

Hasn't even taken the oath of office yet and already scaring the shit out of coal related industry.