Fixing the economy means going back to basics Posted by Joe Lucas on 02/23/2009 04:41:51 PM

Tomorrow night, President Obama will tell Congress that his highest priority is getting America’s economy back on track.

I couldn’t agree more.

Sometimes, getting back on track can be as simple as getting back to basics. And for the American economy and quality of life, affordable energy is truly a basic necessity.

Consider this: energy costs are second only to labor costs in determining the viability of a business in a given location. Thus, access to low-cost energy means stronger businesses and more jobs for American workers. Of course, for working families, lower energy costs mean more money to make ends meet in challenging economic times.

I believe affordable energy is critical to our economic recovery, and I would like to hear the president talk about how it is we are going to hold the line on rising energy costs as we meet more stringent environmental standards.

But that’s just my take. What would you like to hear? Tell us here at Behind the Plug, and click here to get involved in keeping energy affordable for American families.

Follow our commentary during President Obama's speech on Twitter.

Obama’s environmental balancing act Posted by Joe Lucas on 01/08/2009 02:17:22 PM

Last week, The New York Times provided some additional insight into President-elect Obama’s upcoming obstacles. The chief challenge: striking “the right balance between his environmental goals and his plans to revive the economy.”

This balance is something we’re all striving for. At ACCCE, we understand that there’s no silver energy buckshot. The president-elect himself has recognized the critical role that technology will play in an emerging climate policy, and we strongly support his plan to invest in the demonstrations of full commercial-scale carbon capture and storage projects.

Keeping our options open sounds like a good strategy to me—especially given that 50 percent of our electricity is produced using coal. I’m not sure why anyone else would suggest doing anything to the contrary.

What a great ad on CNN.com! Posted by Joe Lucas on 12/17/2008 11:18:17 AM

I was reading the latest headlines on CNN.com a moment ago when I saw a flash ad by GE.

In the ad, GE Vice Chairman John Krenicki says,"The only way to solve the energy challenge is through technology."

He says that the solution will be in technology investments in "biomass, renewables, natural gas, nuclear, cleaner coal, subsea exploration, cleaning up water..."

After watching the ad, I have to say... I agree. We're going to need all of our domestic resources to meet the rise in electricity demand. I would add, of course, that our most abundant fuel source, coal, is going to continue to play a key role in meeting the energy challenge.

Note: General Electric Capital Corporation is a member of our organization.

Clean coal — it's more than just CO2 Posted by Joe Lucas on 12/11/2008 12:44:42 PM

An environmental special interest group has said that it will invest millions in ads to (in their words) debunk the myth of clean coal. Their claim is that since we're still working on the technology to capture and store CO₂, there is no such thing as clean coal. 

First of all, we share the goal of reducing CO2 emissions, but clean coal technology includes any advanced technology that reduces the environmental footprint of electricity generation.

Also, why aren't these groups spending millions to ensure that buses don't have signs plastered on them that say "powered by clean natural gas?"  I'm not knocking natural gas... but the fact is, natural gas also emits CO₂.  Don't they want to have any consistency to their argument?

We need all of our available energy resources, but I guess their strict constructionist argument would also not allow them to describe wind and solar (intermittent power sources) as reliable.

The fact is, as I've said many times, all energy resources have their pluses and their minuses — coal included.  But the fact remains, the use of technology has led to significant progress in reducing criteria pollutants and other regulated emissions in the coal-based electricity sector (an achievement these groups are all too fast to dismiss).

Going forward, the industry (through a working partnership with the government and academia) has laid a strong foundation for bringing new even more advanced technologies to the marketplace to capture and safely store CO₂. 

Being a Monday morning quarterback may be the safest position to play, but it doesn't win any ballgames. 

When it comes to promoting energy independence, providing affordable, reliable power and investing in the technologies for a cleaner energy future, we're in the game.  We'll take our hits when they are deserved, and I suspect most people know a foul when they see one.

Clean coal and the new president Posted by Joe Lucas on 12/02/2008 11:20:35 AM

During the election, President-elect Obama talked a lot about investing in America's energy future. While that will involve investing in all of our available domestic energy resources, the President-elect was clear that developing and deploying clean coal technologies would reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources, create American jobs and hold down U.S. electricity costs.

In President-elect Obama has had to say about the future of clean coal:

“I am a big proponent of clean-coal technology and I want us to move rapidly in developing those sequestration technologies that's required.”

“What we need to do though is to put clean coal technology on the fast track and that means money. It means investment in research. That's something that we should have already been doing.”

“An Obama administration will provide incentives to accelerate private sector investment in commercial scale zero-carbon coal plants.”

We're looking forward to working with the new president, his administration and the new Congress as we seek ways to increase energy independence, reduce energy costs and invest in new technologies to meet new environmental challenges such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector.

In a recent interview with E&ETV, our CEO Steve Miller noted that the new administration would wrestle with a trio of issues, including fitting energy into an economic stimulus; moving the country to greater energy independence; and meeting our responsibilities to the environment.

We think a number of energy projects can help us overcome these challenges, including the revival of FutureGen, which is a public-private partnership to build the world's first near zero-emissions coal-fueled power plant. As Miller said: “President-elect Obama has mentioned five one-of-a-kind carbon capture and storage projects that his administration would be willing to fund; we hope that’s [FutureGen] one of them.”

ACCCE—a coalition of more than 40 coal-based electricity providers—stands ready to work with the president-elect, his administration and the 111th Congress to pioneer a new generation of advanced clean coal technologies that will capture and store carbon emissions and position America as a leader in innovation.

Join us in leading the way.

Thoughts on rebuilding America's economy Posted by Joe Lucas on 11/10/2008 04:34:00 PM

Earlier today, the New America Foundation held a panel discussion on rebuilding the economy, featuring speakers such as National Association of Manufacturers President John Engler and Ethan Zindler, head of North American research at New Energy Finance.

It was a provocative discussion. In particular, I was interested by something Zindler mentioned. His firm’s research came to the following conclusion:

“Energy independence and job creation took precedence over climate change on the campaign trail.”

From our perspective, energy security and job creation and addressing climate change concerns are not mutually exclusive.

Deploying advanced technologies will create jobs here at home, and at the same time ensure that America does not become more reliant on foreign energy resources and consumers are left paying higher energy costs. 

Energy independence & emissions reductions: NOT an either-or? Posted by Joe Lucas on 10/06/2008 07:17:12 PM

Some people seem to think that when it comes to climate change and energy independence, you can't work in favor of one without taking away from the other. That's simply not so.

The United States has more than 250 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves-the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of oil, which is three times more than Saudi Arabia's proven oil reserves. Our most abundant resource is also one of the most affordable-providing electricity at one-third the cost of other major fuels like natural gas and petroleum liquids.

Furthermore, coal has become increasingly clean. Like we've said before, coal is 70 percent cleaner today than it was 35 years ago on the basis of regulated emissions per unit of energy produced. That's due in large part to funding for research and clean coal projects.

New advances in clean coal technology happy every day. Just last week, a scientist in Calgary "washed carbon dioxide right out of the air using the equivalent of a greenhouse gas sponge." Other clean coal projects include extracting hydrogen from coal for possible use for fueling cars.

These projects, like the clean coal projects before them, may well lead us away from foreign energy sources while meeting our commitment to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

And I guess that's my problem with clean coal naysayers-because we won't know if we don't try. And frankly, nothing productive comes from pessimism. So don't you think it's time we stopped saying "we can't" and started saying, "let's give it a shot"?

Coal: Part of America’s Blended Energy Solution Posted by Joe Lucas on 09/29/2008 11:28:01 AM

This month, Energy Central’s featured writer poses another inconvenient truth: we need coal as part of America’s energy solution.

Mark Gabriel, an executive management consultant for R.W. Beck, carefully lays out the need for America’s coal by looking at our projected energy demand alongside our means of meeting it, citing a recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation that shows that six of 10 U.S. regions will have insufficient electricity capacity by 2009. Says Gabriel: “No amount of alternative energy can meet the needs in the next 10 to 15 years, even if some huge hurdles such as energy storage are achieved.”

Need a visual? Take a look at this graph, using figures from the EIA’s 2007 Annual Energy Outlook:

Source: Energy Information Administration 2007 Annual Energy Outlook
Electricity demand is expected to increase in the U.S. by 1.7% per year through 2030 requiring an increase in generating capacity of roughly 30%.

On top of the cold, hard facts, Gabriel delivers a dose of harsh reality for politicians and coal opponents:

The current aversion to coal is another clear example that politicians and the public do not recognize the complex nature of our energy enterprise, its critical nature and fragility. More than 30 coal plants were canceled or delayed in the U.S. in 2007 at a time when electricity demand was rising making the total number of canceled or delayed plants over the past two years to 52.

[T]hese cancellations are rationalized through the mistaken belief that energy efficiency and renewables can supplant the baseload generation provided by coal and nuclear as well as an unrealistic reliance on natural gas, which again topped $10 a million cubic feet in early April, up from $3 just three years ago.

Gabriel’s article underscores the point we’ve been making all along: coal needs to be part of the energy conversation. It’s our most abundant, affordable resource and we couldn’t run the country without it. The sooner we stop making coal part of the problem and get on board with making it part of the solution, the sooner we’ll get cleaner technologies to market and reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources.

Read more.

Linking security and energy Posted by Joe Lucas on 09/26/2008 11:02:14 PM

We said earlier that you can’t talk about national security without mentioning a topic inextricably linked to it: energy independence.

And sure enough... at tonight's debate, Barack Obama said that we "have to have an energy policy to deal with not just Russia" but other politically volatile and/or unfriendly nations. He mentioned that using American coal can help us become less dependent on foreign energy sources.

To be sure, John McCain agrees. As we're proud to mention, both candidates know that coal is abundant, affordable and increasingly clean.

National security: What’s coal got to do with it? Posted by Joe Lucas on 09/26/2008 02:12:55 PM

The first presidential debate is scheduled for tonight on the theme of national security. Of course, you can’t talk about national security without mentioning a topic inextricably linked to it: energy independence.

From running Wall Street to getting people to the emergency room, we couldn’t maintain our daily operations without energy. And as long as we import energy sources from volatile parts of the world, we’ll remain vulnerable to the fallout of foreign conflicts—including energy shortages and steep energy prices.

Fortunately, we can best address this issue by putting to work our most abundant resource: coal.

We have coal like the Middle East has oil, and currently over 50% of the electricity we use every day comes from American coal. For the past 30 years, we’ve used coal to meet America’s growing energy demands, hold down electricity costs for families and businesses, and improved air quality—making it all the more clear that coal is part of America’s solution for energy independence.

As you watch the debate tonight, remember that our economy and the livelihood of U.S. families depend on a reliable energy infrastructure. We need a president who supports homegrown energy initiatives, funneling money into American energy projects instead of sending it oversees to nations that don't have our best interest at heart.