30Dec

Another View: Coal is an Essentual Part of Our Energy Menu

By John Pippy Times Guest Columnist Jack Rodgers’ recent letter is correct in pointing out that “crucial details need to be worked out” in the proposed Clean Power Plan. Such work remains because of the realities of supply and demand. The Clean Power Plan’s requirements will force the closings of coal-fired power plants when no […]
29Dec

Texas Says Federal Plan for Coal Plant Emissions is Too Harsh

Texas is not Kentucky. Or West Virginia. That’s clear to everyone. But there’s conflict over what these distinctions mean when it comes to President Barack Obama’s plan to sharply reduce climate-altering pollution from coal-fired power plants, the nation’s leading source of carbon dioxide emissions. All three states burn a lot of coal, but Texas says […]
23Dec

Lawmakers Press Obama to Rescind Climate Rule

A group of bipartisan lawmakers is urging President Obama to withdraw the administration’s climate regulation on carbon pollution from existing power plants. In a letter sent to Obama on Friday, 102 members of Congress argue the proposal would “dramatically” change the way “we generate, transmit and consume electricity in the United States.” Six Democrats joined […]
22Dec

Walker Says EPA Rule Would Harm Wisconsin’s Manufacturing Sector

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, 49 state legislators and two state agencies have submitted letters to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency expressing concerns over the effects of its proposed Clean Power Plan. The EPA’s Clean Power Plan is a state-based carbon reduction proposal to be implemented using a section of the federal Clean Air Act. The […]
19Dec

ERCOT Warns EPA Rules Could Spur Outages, Rate Hikes

AUSTIN — The state’s electrical grid operator is warning new federal regulations could drive up the price of electricity and potentially lead to power outages in parts of the state. The last time Texans faced large-scale outages was February 2011. An unusually severe arctic blast caused several power plants to trip offline at the same […]
17Dec

Texas Grid Operator Sees Potential Reliability Fallout from EPA Plans

Texas’ main power grid operator, in its second report in a month on U.S. EPA plans, said yesterday that potential or recently finalized federal environmental rules could affect reliability and costs as substantial coal-fueled generation may retire. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, estimated that as much as 8,700 megawatts of coal-fired capacity […]
17Dec

Electric Grid Operations Sound the Alarm: EPA’s Carbon Plan Wreaks Havoc with Reliable and Affordable Electricity

Just like Paul Revere, the experts responsible for managing much of the electric grid in the United States are warning that the EPA’s “too much, too soon” approach to cut carbon emissions by shutting down coal-fired power plants will have disastrous consequences for reliable and affordable electricity. According to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), […]
16Dec

Even Before Long Winter Begins, Energy Bills Send Shivers in New England

SALEM, N.H. — John York, who owns a small printing business here, nearly fell out of his chair the other day when he opened his electric bill. For October, he had paid $376. For November, with virtually no change in his volume of work and without having turned up the thermostat in his two-room shop, […]
16Dec

States Come Together to Oppose Overreaching EPA Coal Mandates

The Obama Administration likes to pretend its policies benefit the working poor – yet the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed new climate regulations will add billions of dollars in costs to their energy bills over the next decade. That’s one key reason a large and growing number of state governors, attorneys general and government departments […]
15Dec

EPA’s Regulatory ‘Trifecta’ Imperils the Texas Power Grid

Partly because of cheap and abundant natural gas, more than 30,000 megawatts of coal-fired electric power generation have been retired nationwide since 2005 with another 30,000 megawatts likely to go offline in the decade ahead. Still, coal today accounts for nearly 40 percent of all the electricity generated in America. In Texas, coal plants produce […]