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Utilities Vote To Close Largest Coal Plant In Western US (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: At 2.25 gigawatts, Arizona's Navajo Generating Station is the biggest coal-burning power plant in the Western U.S. The plant, and the nearby Kayenta coal mine that feeds it, are located on the Navajo Indian Reservation, and the Navajo and Hopi peoples have had a conflicted relationship with coal since the plant opened in the 1970s. Almost all the 900-plus jobs at the mine and plant are held by Native Americans, and the tribes receive royalties to account for large portions of their budget. Negotiations were underway to improve the tribes' lease terms, which expire in 2019. But on Monday, the four utilities that own most of the plant voted to close it at the end of 2019. They decided that the plant's coal-powered electricity just can't compete with plants burning natural gas. A press release from Salt River Projects, which runs the plant, explained, "The decision by the utility owners of [Navajo Generating Station] is based on the rapidly changing economics of the energy industry, which has seen natural gas prices sink to record lows and become a viable long-term and economical alternative to coal power."
massive Solar plant?
Without government putting its thumb on the scale.
This demonstrates exactly how empty the campaign promises to bring back coal were. Nobody wants to burn coal when it's so much more expensive than everything else.
Easy Online Role Playing Campaign Management
We have lots of both...
http://www.wvcoal.com/research...
love is just extroverted narcissism
Only 2.25 gigawatts? You twats are massively polluting our planet for.. just that?
So based on this article:
1. Price on gas lowers
2. Gas plants gets built
3. It turned out once built en mass, that gas plants was cheaper than coal before price collapse, but nobody knew until economy of scale kicked in
====
That said, the statement in the article do not have to ring true at all.
Then again, per Wikipedia, Owners:
-U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (24.3%)
-Salt River Project (21.7%)
-LADWP (former) (21.2%)
-Arizona Public Service (14.0%)
-NV Energy (11.3%)
-Tucson Electric Power (7.5%)
So 4 out of 6 want it shut down, in the mid term future. Which one? And why?
This is just a tactic to get the best deal on the renewal of the plant. Happens all the time. Clean coal is cheap.
About 60 miles west of Phoenix. The Tonopah plant.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
This plant is one of the worst polluters in the west. It was exempted from the mercury limits rule when they went into effect and it's responsible for 90% of the air pollution and haze in the Grand Canyon. This plant should have been shut down as soon as viable alternatives existed and market forces are finally doing it in.
It should be noted that the whole reason coal is more expensive is because we have so much more natural gas from fracking. You can thank Fracking for yet another environmental victory.
how empty the campaign promises to bring back coal were.
No-one said they would be coal jobs... plus maybe those jobs are not going away, from article:
it's at least possible that the tribes could work out a deal to keep the plant running under a different ownership arrangement.
Never underestimate the power of an aggrieved minority. Question of the day, do you think Democrats will vote for anything that keeps this plant running? The answer is yes, as you will see.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Don't look for crony-free capitalism in big energy. It won't and can't exist. Like capital itself, energy is too important to leave to the whims of the market. And where you don't see in-your-face subsidies (like Ethanol/corn producers), there's back-end subsidies like tax breaks, easements, or permits for getting rid of toxic waste for free. Coal ash is a particularly nasty nasty toxic waste, for example, full of heavy metals and even radio-active materials, that has to be dumped in horrid "ponds" that look horrifying from the air and that the companies promise will NEVER leak into the ground-water while there are ANY family-members of the board of directors still living within 1000 miles of there.
Well, if the plant is about 40 years old, maybe an expensive refurbishment is needed to extend its life. Add in possible coal regulations under the next presidential administration. And the lease expires in 2019. 2019 does sound like a good potential stop date. I hope America doesn't quickly burn through its natural gas boom. Natural gas can be used for cars, airplanes, etc., which coal can't.
Is Trump going to appear with the CEO to take credit for this one as well?
I stole this Sig
The article is mostly a lie. They gave up on the plant because the EPA revoked permits on 27 Feb 2015, so they can't run it at full capacity or high efficiency.
This story has been "spun" in all kinds of directions, but when it gets down to it the newest unit was built in 1976 and it's getting increasingly expensive to replace parts piecemeal and keep it running. The lease on the land has come up and the choice was to either pay that new expense on top of the ongoing increasing running costs or give up.
A lot of units of that type from that time were designed for a 20 to 25 year life.
Well, actually, if you plot pollution over time in major cities, and indicate where landmark environmental acts were passed and enforced, you'lll realize that Ayn Rand did more for the environment than legislation and enforcement. In fact, it will become very clear to you that the legislation has had a minimal affect.
"They decided that the plant’s coal-powered electricity just can’t compete with plants burning natural gas."
If I recall correctly there was a lot of talk of switching over to natural gas back during the oil embargo, then prices massively spiked and decided it would be a bad idea to become too dependent on yet another fossil fuel. And this plant closure is of course only part of the picture, natural gas plants are expected to replace a lot of coal and even some nuclear capacity over the next few decades. Looks like we still haven't learned our lesson about putting most of our eggs in one basket. We need a mix of energy sources (Wind, Solar, Biomass, Nuclear, coal, petroleum, etc) not one "perfect" source that puts our entire society at the behest of one fragile supply chain (or monopoly).
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=29952
Pennsylvania heard the anti-coal speech Hillary strangely dared to give in West Virginia. They did the right thing.
The Navajo plant outgasses into the Grand Canyon, where sunlight acting on it produces smog. Let's close it and add another unit to Palo Verde.
They're just repeating what they heard without knowing what it means. It's a kind of libertarian mantra, like the Buddhist "Ohm". Means nothing but it makes them calmer to say it.
And under the Invisible Hand of the Free Market (tm), which also declared War on Coal!!!
Oh, yeah, what "government war on coal"? I must have missed that in the corporate change to mountaintop removal, cutting 90% of mining jobs....
Hopefully they've been investing their royalties and taxes in planning for this plant's replacement. Though if they had I bet they should have already started production of the new plant...
THis has been being researched for some time. China is the single largest polluter in western America, EXCEPT for this coal plant. This one has been polluting our forest and western cities for decades.
Now after this, China is the west's single largest source of pollution. Yes, it make all the way to Denver. The question is, what will the west, or even the world do, to stop them.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Trump is very likely going to allow the major exporting of oil and nat gas. We will see these go WAY UP IN PRICE in America.
As long as we invest into nuke power, America will be OK. Otherwise, we are going to see our electricity and nat gas prices go WAY UP, and lose a bunch of our chemical industry jobs.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.