Trakar
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EPAs Regulation of Coal-Fired Power: Is a Train Wreck Coming?
Congressional Research Service report Aug. 8, 2011
from the Summary:
Now where have we heard this recently?!
So the "train wreck" for older, inefficient and was already "on the books" due to market factors, whether or not the EPA tightened and enforced its air quality regulations!
The CRS report acknowledges the benefits of these new EPA rules and tightening of enforcement for existing rules. In one example, the clamp down on smog-causing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide would help prevent tens of thousands of cases of bronchitis and heart attacks, with the potential to save 30-40 thousand lives/year. Thats a quarter trillion dollars in health benefits, compared with 3 billion per year in costs by 2014.
In most cases, CRS concludes, the benefits are larger.
Congressional Research Service report Aug. 8, 2011
from the Summary:
... The primary impacts of many of the rules will largely be on coal-fired plants more than 40 years old that have not, until now, installed state-of-the-art pollution controls. Many of these plants are inefficient and are being replaced by more efficient combined cycle natural gas plants, a development likely to be encouraged if the price of competing fuelnatural gascontinues to be low, almost regardless of EPA rules...
Now where have we heard this recently?!
So the "train wreck" for older, inefficient and was already "on the books" due to market factors, whether or not the EPA tightened and enforced its air quality regulations!
...Older, smaller, less efficient units already face a train wreck. In 2010, 48 of them with a combined capacity of 12 GW were retired, according to one source. Another source identifies 149 coal-fired units with a combined capacity of 19.7 GW whose retirement has been announced or implemented in the past few years. In recent weeks, as utilities weigh the cost of retrofitting and operating their older units, more retirements have been announced.
But this does not mean that the newer (post-1970) coal-fired facilities that have invested in
pollution controls over the years will be shuttered. Most of them already comply with many of the proposed rules, or if not, they can do so with modest modifications to their pollution control equipment. A train wreck for this group seems unlikely...
Source: Sue Tierney, EPA Proposed Utility Air Toxics Rule Managing Compliance in Reliable Ways, Congressional Staff Briefing, May 9, 2011, p. 10. The chart is based on EIA Form 860 data. A similar chart produced by EIA itself can be found at http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=1830.
The CRS report acknowledges the benefits of these new EPA rules and tightening of enforcement for existing rules. In one example, the clamp down on smog-causing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide would help prevent tens of thousands of cases of bronchitis and heart attacks, with the potential to save 30-40 thousand lives/year. Thats a quarter trillion dollars in health benefits, compared with 3 billion per year in costs by 2014.
In most cases, CRS concludes, the benefits are larger.