Tag Archives: EPA

Cleaner energy creates jobs in Iowa

In Iowa they didn’t

whine about cleaner power regulations like Southern Company did,
they went ahead and
got on with it without

dragging their feet for months or years.
Simply complying with the new EPA regulations has created jobs for Iowans.

Matt Kasper wrote for ThinkProgress today,

Pollution Control Retrofit Creates 400 Jobs In Iowa: Project Is
A ‘Win-Win For Iowa’s Economy And Environment’



Alliant Energy in Iowa is celebrating an emission-reduction
technology that will help a power plant meet new standards —
creating 400 jobs in the process. One recent study found that
“EPA’s two new air quality rules create 1.5 million
jobs.”….

The

Ottumwa Courier reported:



“The OGS [Ottumwa Generating Station] project is a win-win for
Iowa’s economy and environment,” said Pat Kampling, president
and CEO of Alliant Energy. “The project at OGS will create
approximately 400 good-paying construction jobs for Iowa’s working
families and foster future economic growth while making Iowa’s air
cleaner.”

Better for public health, better for less climate change,
and better the economy: more jobs for Iowans.

-jsq

Toxic air in Georgia —NRDC

Georgia's air: not quite as bad as Florida's.

WTXL wrote Thursday, Florida and Georgia ranked high for toxicity exposure,

According to an analysis released by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Florida is the 6th worst state in the nation when it comes to exposing residents to toxic air pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Florida's air would rate even worse if Florida Power and Light had to burn coal in Florida instead of at Plant Scherer near Macon to generate power for Florida. Instead, FPL dirties Georgia's air for Florida's benefit.

Georgia is ninth worst on the NRDC's Toxic 20 list, in “Toxic Power: How Power Plants Contaminate Our Air and States”. Here's NRDC's press release.

-jsq

Southern Company shutting some coal generation

Southern Company (SO) is reducing its coal fuming and making the rest comply with EPA regulations, and is surprised to discover that won’t cost nearly as much or take nearly as long as it complained only 8 months ago. But remember SO isn’t even abandoning coal and is shifting to big-plant baseload natural gas and nuclear while avoiding distributed solar and wind power.

Cassandra Sweet wrote for Dow Jones and the WSJ 25 July 2012, 2nd UPDATE: Southern Co. Second-Quarter Profit Up as Economy Improves,

Southern Co. plans to shut down about 4,000 megawatts of older, coal-fired power plants to comply with stricter federal pollution rules.

How much coal generation is that? SO’s Plant Scherer near Juliette, Georgia, the largest power plant in the western hemisphere, burning 12 million tons of Wyoming coal every year, is the “nation’s No. 1 producer of carbon dioxide — the heat-trapping gas that is held chiefly responsible in models of global warming” (number two is SO’s Plant Bowen near Cartersville and number three is SO’s Plant Miller in Quinton, Alabama). Each of Plant Scherer’s four plants is rated at 880 megawatts, or 3520 MW total. But don’t get your hopes up: one of those four plants is owned by Florida Power and Light and JEA of Jacksonville, Florida. Why should Florida power companies want to shut down a plant that leaves the pollution in Georgia while exporting the power to Florida?

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Southern Company has 3 biggest CO2 plants in U.S.

David Ibala wrote for the AJC 11 January 2012,

Study: Southern Company plants are 3 biggest greenhouse gas emitters

Two Southern Company coal-fired electric generating plants near


Atlanta are the biggest contributors to global greenhouse gases in
the United States, and a third Southern plant in Alabama is the
third-biggest emitter, an analysis of environmental data found
Wednesday.

The nation’s No. 1 producer of carbon dioxide — the
heat-trapping gas that is held chiefly responsible in models of
global warming — is Plant Scherer in Juliette, about 65 miles
southeast of downtown Atlanta, according to the Associated Press
analysis of data reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency for 2010.

That’s the plant that supplies most of our power in south Georgia,
whether you get it through Georgia Power or Colquitt EMC.

The No. 2 producer is Plant Bowen, just west of Cartersville, about
50 miles northwest of central Atlanta, and the third-largest is
Plant Miller in Quinton, Ala., about 165 miles west of Atlanta near
Birmingham, the AP said.

The story also notes (as a picture caption):

Georgia Power recently installed pollution-control equipment, called
baghouses, to curb mercury pollution at Plant Scherer. EPA rules
that will regulate mercury likely will lead to the utility to install
additional baghouses at other coal-fired plants

Hm, that’s exactly what Southern Company said

it was incompetent to do.
Apparently it figured out to do what other power companies already knew how to do.

Anyway, pumping out CO2 from coal plants is what Southern Company is doing
instead of solar and wind.

-jsq

Southern Company claims to be incompetent regarding new EPA rules

Why can’t Southern Company do what other power companies can do
in implementing the new coal plant pollution control rules EPA
is about to promulgate?



Elizabeth Shogren wrote for NPR today,

EPA To Unveil Stricter Rules For Power Plants.
She described new rules for coal plants EPA is going to release in the next
few weeks, including controls on mercury, “arsenic, acid gases and other pollutants.”
Southern Company doesn’t like that.

“It’s physically impossible to build the controls, the generation, the


transmission and the pipelines needed in three years,” says Anthony
Topazi, chief operating officer for Southern Company, which provides
electricity to nearly 4 million homes and hundreds of thousands of
businesses in the Southeast.

Topazi says electricity rates will go up, putting marginal companies out
of business. He says unless his company gets six years, it will not be
able to keep the lights on.

“We will experience rolling blackouts or rationing power if we don’t
have simply the time to comply,” Topazi says.

Other power companies see no problem:

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VSU Faculty Senate passes anti-biomass resolution

Karen Noll reported on WACE’s facebook page that
the VSU Faculty Senate passed a resolution Thursday 19 May 2011 that
biomass will not be considered renewable for VSU’s climate commitment goal.

Why?

Because
leading medical associations have identified woody biomass
incineration as increasing risks of
“a variety of illnesses, some life-threatening”,
because biomass incineration
produces more CO2, NOX, and fine particulates than existing coal plants,
and because it
“may lead to
unsustainable forestry practices and a net increase in global greenhouse
gas emissions”.

Who proposed this?

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Americans overwhelmingly want clean energy and environmental protection —Pew



Climate Progress points out that

a new Pew poll, “Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology”,
shows that

Public support for alternative energy transcends political barriers:

71% of Americans believe “This country should do whatever it takes to
protect the environment.” And 59% believe that “strongly.”

Quoting from
Pew’s summary:

In light of this diversity it is interesting to note a couple of areas
where almost all of these groups agree. The first is on support for
alternative energy. Overall, the public prioritizes developing alternative
energy over expanding oil, coal, and natural gas by a 63-29 margin. And,
as shown in the chart below, seven of Pew’s eight active typology
groups support this position, including a whopping 40-point margin
among the Main Street Republican group. Only the staunch conservatives
(9 percent of the public) dissent from the rest.
Conservatives usually act like progressive ideas have no purchase in
“their” part of the political spectrum. These data suggest otherwise.

And no, conservatives are not the political type the south
has the most disproportional percentage of: those would be
Hard-Pressed Democrats and Disaffecteds.

And no, by “alternative energy”
people don’t mean polluting biomass:

63% of Americans say “EPA needs to do more to hold polluters accountable
and protect the air and water”.
What Americans want is clean renewable energy:
solar, wind, and hydrogen.

-jsq

Just say no to biomass –VDT to VLCIA

VDT reported on

Biomass plant misses deadlines,
but what do they really think?
The title is my paraphrase of Sunday’s editorial title,

It’s all up to the Industrial Authority:



In two months, less than 60 days away, Wiregrass Power LLC is supposed to
break ground on the biomass facility in Lowndes County. By now, they are
supposed to have contracts with power companies to sell the electricity
to and with suppliers to purchase the wood waste. They have neither,
nor does the company have an agreement with the city of Valdosta to
purchase the wastewater from the sewage treatment plant.

Well, the City of Valdosta could

refuse to sell the wastewater.
And maybe the Lowndes County Commission could exercise its

fiduciary responsibility.
But, sure, the Industrial Authority could just say no.


And yet the folks at the Industrial Authority appear to be rather
nonchalant about the fact that this company has yet again broken its
agreement. They have the power to renogiate the terms of the agreement and
they also have the power to cancel it, but neither is happening. Instead,
they are giving the company all the leeway they need to continue dragging
this project along that the community doesn’t want.

Folks?
Like Col. Ricketts?
But remember, he and

Lame-Duck Lofton
are only

Continue reading →

Biomass plant misses deadlines –VDT

David Rodock writes on the front page of the Sunday VDT today
(the highest profile news source for the region) that

Biomass plant misses deadlines:
Will the plant move forward?



The Wiregrass Power LLC biomass facility was supposed to have met a number
of project goals established by the Economic Development Agreement (EDA)
between the company and the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
by April 1, 2011. According to Allen Ricketts, Industrial Authority
project manager, those goals still have yet to be met.

The specific goals in the agreement were that a “finalized engineering
procurement construction contract” would be ready by March 31. By
April 1, the company was supposed to have finalized both a power
purchase/transmission agreement along with a wastewater/biosolids
agreement.

They’ve been slipping deadlines for quite some time.
According to page 4 of that EDA (which you can see for yourself

on the LAKE web site):

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No Adage biomass plant in Hamilton County, Florida

According to Power-Gen Worldwide,

Plans for biomass power plant ends:

The company still has a permit to build a 55 MW plant in Florida but
there are no plans to start construction and the company is expected to
let the permit lapse in June. Adage ended plans in 2010 to build another
plant in Florida.

Why is Adage giving up on Hamilton County, Florida?

Christopher Dunagan writes in Kitsap Sun:



Meanwhile, a similar project by Adage in Northern Florida also will not
be pursued at this time, according to DePonty. That project has been
fully permitted and was about to move ahead if only the electricity
market had provided the financial incentive, he said.

Here’s the
Florida air permit.
Despite having that air permit and promising

jobs, jobs, jobs
Adage is apparently not going to build in Hamilton, County, Florida.

The source of the many stories on this appears to be

Continue reading →