Chicago Clean Power Ordinance Threatens Coal Fired Power Shutdown

Chicago’s new Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, 12^th Ward Alderman George Cardenas and 25^th Ward Alderman Danny Solis have given Edison subsidiary Midwest Generation a two week ultimatum to come up with an air pollution reduction plan for the company’s Fisk coal fired power plant in the Pilsen neighborhood on the near west side, and its Crawford coal fired plant in the Little Village neighborhood on the southwest side, or the politicians threaten to push through the proposed Chicago Clean Power Ordinance, which if passed will require closure of both power plants within two years.  Both plants, grandfathered out of the federal Clean Air Act, burn strip mined coal brought into Illinois by rail from Wyoming, and contribute mightily to air pollution in two of Chicago’s predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods.

A deal to shut down the two facilities in exchange for a long term wind power contract between an Edison company and the City of Chicago was scuttled last fall by Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, and ongoing negotiations concerning the fate of the plants have apparently stalled.

International Coal To Expand Williamsville Underground Mine

International Coal Group, Inc. is beginning work on a $20 million expansion of its Viper underground coal mining operation near Williamsville, Illinois. The Viper mine is a room and pillar underground mine bringing up coal from the Springfield Seam, also known as the Illinois Number 5 Seam. Viper sells 58% of its output to electric utilities, and processes the raw coal at its preparation plant on the mine site.

Will Climate Change Legislation Promote Coal And Nuclear Power To Cut Down Foreign Oil Dependence?

Senators Joe Lieberman, Lindsay Graham and Lamar Alexander are pushing for a far larger role for nuclear power generation and new technology coal fired power plant construction as part of the climate change legislation now moving through Congress at a snail's pace. Alexander is promoting a provision which would call for construction of 100 new nuclear power plants by 2030.

Lieberman echoes Alexander's sentiments. "Without a nuclear title that's stronger than in the House climate change legislation, we're not going to be able to get enough votes to pass climate change." Lieberman, who changed party affiliation from Democrat to Independent last year after campaigning for President Obama, was stripped by his party of his seat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, but he is still actively talking to committee members about developing a bill in the Senate.

Climate Change Legislation Shuffles Forward

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman now predicts he will have the votes to sent to send a climate change bill to the House floor next week, following a closed door meeting of Democrats on the committee. Expect a draft of the bill Thursday and a markup beginning Monday. Apparently the bill will set a greenhouse gas emission reduction goal of 17% by 2020 and 83% by 2050. Cap and trade credits will be distributed 35% to electric utilities, 15% to heavy industry, with details still to be worked out regarding credits to refineries.

The bill will likely require 20% electric power production through a combination of energy efficiency measures and renewable power production by 2020, with 5% of that coming from efficiency measures, unless a state's governor certifies 15% renewable production is not possible in his or her state, in which case an additional 3% efficiency offset will be allowed. Further increase to 25% renewable/efficient energy by 2025 is also to be required. "Renewable" sources will most likely include energy from waste and biomass, but not nuclear energy. The compromise is to exclude existing nuclear facility power from the baseline for measuring the reductions.

On the Senate side, Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman is marking up plans for a new power transmission grid, facing 28 proposed amendments to his draft proposal, which will then become part of the cap and trade Senate bill originating in Barbara Boxer's Environment and Public Works Committee.

At a Chamber of Commerce energy forum today House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the Obama administration is committed to a comprehensive energy program including coal, oil and nuclear power as well as renewable energy. Hoyer reminded the audience of business people that nuclear power and coal produce 85% of electrical power in this country. Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee reminded the same audience that wind and solar power are inefficient, expensive, occupy a large amount of space, and cannot be counted on to provide sufficient power during peak demand.

All of this legislative committee activity has certainly brought out the industry and environmental lobbyists on all sides of these issues. Statistical analysis shows Democrats on Waxman's 58 member committee who oppose the bill have receives on the average six times as much campaign money from industries emitting greenhouse gasses as those committee Democrats supporting the legislation. In the first quarter of 2009 industry interests have spent a total of nearly $80 million lobbying against cap and trade, with environmental groups spending $4.7 million pressing for passage, and the renewable energy industry adding another $7.5 million in support of the measure.

Waxman Threatens Subcommittee Leapfrog To Speed Energy Policy Bill

Though Democrat members of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee spent an hour in the Oval Office with President Obama Tuesday trying to iron out regional energy policy differences, Chairman Henry Waxman says he may skip over the subcommittee and take the legislation directly to the entire Energy and Commerce Committee for a markup next week. "I'm still holding firm on my deadline of getting a bill out of the committee by the end of May," Waxman said, "and I believe that will probably require us to go right to the full committee and bypass the subcommittee." Waxman would not commit to a deadline for releasing the pre-markup text of the bill, entitled American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

Congressman Rick Boucher of Virginia, who attended the meeting of subcommittee members with President Obama, Vice President Biden, National Economic Council Chairman Larry Summers and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said compromise among various factions is still needed on the time schedule for CO2 emissions reduction, allocation of carbon cap and trade credits, wind and solar power mandates, and identification of activities which can be used to offset emission reduction requirements. Speaking on the depth of state to state differences on such issues, Boucher emphasized the need for regional balance so as not to disadvantage states which rely heavily on coal, oil and gas fired power production.

Describing the meeting with President Obama, Congressman Jay Inslee of Washington said the President "told us sometimes we do things of real impact, and none of us would want to look back in twenty to thirty years and think we had punted on something of a historic nature."

Coal's Glow Fades At The Capitol

Acting Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers tells Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid that as of now the Capitol Building will use only natural gas to fire its heating boilers and water heaters, unless, of course, there is a cold spell or the capacity of the gas pipeline feeding the Capitol Building is exceeded, in which the coal fired boilers are still in place as a back up system. Cost of the switch over: $7 million.

Reid says the switch shows "that the House and Senate are leading by example in reducing our emissions." Pelosi says the power plant is moving "from the 19th century to the 21st century." Wait a minute, doesn't burning natural gas to produce steam heat and hot water still generate tons of CO2 emissions?