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 American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is committed to the idea that America can have the affordable, reliable electricity we need, with the clean environment we want. ACCCE’s Behind the Plug blog is the place for up-to-date news and analysis on clean coal technology developments and energy policy progress.
I would like to hear that power companies are considering to look at geo-thermal energy as a low cost, low maintenance way of making electricity. I think it would be cheaper in the long run to go deeper in old oil and gas wells to tap the Earth’s heat to use steam to power turbines. I know this because I have seen the temperature of the wells at different depths in West Texas and know it’s there for the taking. Thanks.