Archive for March, 2010

Coal critical for Colorado’s future

By now you’ve heard there is a bill moving through the Colorado legislature that calls for switching coal-generated power plants with natural gas-fired power plants to generate electricity. You might have also heard that the cost of natural gas for electricity is approximately three times the cost of coal.

From the standpoint of helping our economy or advancing environmental progress, using government incentives to increase natural gas demand in the electricity sector does not make sense.

Going forward, meeting our nation’s demand for affordable, reliable and clean electricity will require the use of all of our abundant domestic energy resources. That includes coal, which today and in the future should remain a fuel of choice for meeting America’s electricity needs because it is affordable, abundant, and, thanks to technology, able to meet increasingly stringent environmental standards.

If you support our position on this bill, we recommend you reach out to your Colorado legislators, write your Colorado newspapers, and take a stand for coal to remain a key part of Colorado’s energy future.


The Coal Wire: March 29, 2010

The Coal WireRep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), The News and Sentinel (3/29): "What's to stop the EPA from going after more permits that have already been issued and are fully operational? This action disregards the expertise of both the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) and puts all of West Virginia miners at risk of losing their jobs."

The Financial Times (3/29): "Even with all the investments in solar, wind and biomass, China will still get nearly two-thirds of its energy from coal in two decades time. As a result, for many observers, it is cleaner coal technologies – rather than renewables – that could provide the biggest benefits in terms of limiting the growth in emissions."


The Coal Wire: March 25, 2010

The Coal WireCalera Corp. CEO Brent Constantz, E&E News (3/23): “We believe that the CO2 used in our process for producing materials could exceed the current generation rate of CO2 from all global industrial and utility sources.”

New Energy Focus (3/24): "According to figures in the report [by the Scottish government], around 60,000 green jobs could be created by 2020 in low carbon industries, including an additional 26,000 jobs in renewables, 26,000 jobs in emerging low carbon technologies and a further 8,000 jobs in environmental management. It also noted that low carbon goods and services would be worth an estimated £12 billion by 2015."


Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), The State Journal (3/25):
“Coal has given the American people the highest standard of living in the world, and will continue to be a cornerstone of our energy policy…We cannot wait much longer to put the research and incentives out there for CCS technologies to thrive and clean coal’s future to be secure."