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Global Warming Concerns Nix Coal-Fired Power Plants

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 October 2007, 12:00 CDT

Coal-fired power plant proposals are starting to fall by the wayside around the country, and growing global warming concerns are one big reason.

But an Alliant Energy official says the Madison utility company's plan to build a coal-fired plant in southwest Wisconsin is a better alternative than most and will not be dropped.

For what's believed to be the first time, greenhouse gases have been cited as a government agency's reason for turning down an air permit application for a new, coal-fired power plant.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said carbon dioxide emissions from two proposed 700-megawatt coal-fueled units would threaten public health and the environment. The agency rejected an air permit for the project.

"It would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment and health if we do nothing," said the department's secretary, Roderick Bremby.

Air permits have been denied over other types of emissions, but this is the first time carbon dioxide has been the basis for rejection, according to the Washington Post, and follows a Supreme Court ruling in April that said greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide should be considered pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Nationwide, at least 16 coal-fired power plant proposals have been dropped in recent months and more than three dozen delayed, as utilities face increasing concern over global warming and rising construction costs. Eight coal-burning plants in Texas were canceled last week and eight others around the U.S. have been called off since May, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

It's not quite a trend, "but a real indicator as to the direction things may be going," Joyce Harms, of Clean Wisconsin, in Madison, said.

Harms said the 300-megawatt plant Alliant has proposed for Cassville, along the Mississippi River in Grant County, would burn coal at a lower temperature than most plants. "It's less efficient. That means the plant emits higher rates of global warming pollution," she said.

But Alliant spokesman Rob Crain said that's why the utility "is committed to" burning renewable resources for 10 percent of the plant's fuel, using switchgrass, wood, waste corn stalks, or a combination of the three.

"At this point, we know it can be done," said Crain, citing test burns of switchgrass at Alliant's Ottumwa, Iowa plant.

The new plant would also upgrade technology at the existing 200-megawatt coal-burning generator at Cassville. The result would be a 90 percent reduction in other types of pollution -- nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury -- even though more than twice as much electricity would be generated, Crain said.

Alliant subsidiary Wisconsin Power & Light, filed an application in February for approval to build the new power plant but in June, the state Public Service Commission declared it incomplete, listing 13 pages of unanswered questions including cost details, the potential impact on the Mississippi River bed, and methods Alliant plans to use to monitor the plant's effect on wildlife.

Alliant is "in the process of answering the questions" and hopes to file a response with the PSC before the end of the year, Crain said.

Source: The Wisconsin State Journal

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