Regulators impeding advances in cleaner coal power, 200 told
Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008
HOPE — China is one of the world’s biggest users of power and one of its worst polluters, yet some say that country stands to overcome the United States in lower-emission coal-fired power plants, if U. S. regulators continue to reject such projects.
That statement — issued Thursday to more than 200 people attending an industry-backed Clean Coal Technology Conference — underscored the need for public policy to keep step with new technologies that could reduce U. S. coal plant emissions by 25 percent to 35 percent, said Nancy Mohm, director of marketing strategy for Alstom Power.
“That’s real. That can be done through a range of various approaches. … But our policies need to match the technology reality,” said Mohm, one of more than a dozen speakers scheduled during the two-day event at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope.
“China is adding an entire fleet of 600-, 800- and 1, 000-megawatt “ ultrasupercritical’ units while shutting down their old 200-megawatt units. By 2012, they will have a more-efficient, coal-fired power plant base than we have in the states — if we keep stopping new units from being built.”
The event’s sponsors included the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, whose members include Southwestern Electric Power Co., which plans to build a $ 1. 6 billion coal-fired plant in Hempstead County. Another member is the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp., which plans to buy a share of the plant.
Out of four coal-based projects proposed by SWEPCO’s parent company, American Electric Power, to meet growing electricity demand, the 600-megawatt John W. Turk Jr. facility is the only one that has yet to be denied or face significant regulatory hurdles, said Monty Jasper, American Electric Power’s managing director for new generation projects.
Plans to build a 600-megawatt coal-gasification plant in Ohio remain before state regulators more than three years after American Electric Power first filed for a related rate recovery, he said.
A similar plant was approved by West Virginia regulators in March, but Virginia regulators rejected a subsequent rate filing, making the project’s future uncertain, Jasper said. Coal-gasification technology improves energy output, but reduces fuel consumption and emissions by using half as much oxygen to burn coal.
Plans to build a 900-megawatt ultrasupercritical unit in Oklahoma were denied in 2007, Jasper said. Regulators determined that American Electric Power failed to show that coal power was the most reasonable alternative, but American Electric Power plans to try again, he said.
The Hempstead County plant, also an ultrasupercritical facility, was approved by regulators in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. But it still awaits an air permit from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. Its approval by the Arkansas Public Service Commission also has been appealed to the Arkansas Court of Appeals.
Ultersupercritical plants are designed to generate more power with less coal and emissions by harnessing very high temperature and steam pressures.
Critics of “clean coal” technology such as the Sierra Club and Audubon Society wanted a chance to voice their views but were not invited to participate.
One reason was that the conference agenda and lineup of speakers was already set by the time they expressed interest, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity spokesman Leah Arnold said. Another reason was the topic of the conference itself.
“It’s not focused on renewable energy or energy efficiency. It’s about coal and how we can use it more cleanly going forward,” she said. “We hope to do other conferences that focus on other things. So we would never say never that they would not be a part of future conferences. It just depends on the focus.”
Ken Smith, an Audubon vice president who attended the conference, said he was satisfied with the explanation and that his organization was “fairly late in the game” in asking to take part.
But he noted that all of Thursday’s talk — much less efforts to reduce airborne emissions suspected of changing the earth’s climate — will amount to nothing unless the nation quickly adopts an all-inclusive energy policy.
“Coal has to be accepted as a permanent part of the mix,” Smith said. “But what we really need to do first is push energy efficiency and renewable energy as far down the road as possible and then turn to coal, nuclear and other fuels to address our energy and our environmental problems.”
After a keynote speech Thursday evening by former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, the conference resumes today at 8 a. m.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
