Pollution Versus Power Wheeling – Ameren Threatens Power Plant Shutdowns

St. Louis based Ameren Corporation is threatening to shut down two of its coal fired Illinois power plants unless the Illinois Pollution Control Board gives Ameren a five year extension on the January 1, 2015 deadline for installing sulfur dioxide scrubbers at those facilities. Pleading poverty, Ameren President Steven Sullivan says, “Current market prices for power simply do not allow further investment in pollution control equipment at this time.” Pointing out that the utility has had eight years notice of the stack gas scrubber installation deadline, Rebecca Stanfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council opposes any extension: “The public shouldn’t have to tolerate another five years of unscrubbed coal pollution or the health consequences that result from operating an ancient plant with last century technology. If it turns out that there are more cost-effective and cleaner ways of meeting our electricity needs, the market will allow those solutions to replace the existing coal fleet.”

While petitioning for the scrubber deadline extension, Ameren is also seeking an additional avenue of relief – removal of power grid barriers that presently prohibit Ameren from wheeling power across the grid to northern Illinois markets where it could get a higher price per kilowatt hour, enabling investment in faster scrubber installation. It remains to be seen whether either solution to Ameren’s capital investment woes will materialize any time soon.

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.

Energy Policy Difficulties Put Power Plant Construction On Hold

The Navajo Nation planned to build a 1,500 megawatt coal fired power plant on its reservation in New Mexico, and expected to earn $50 million per year from sales of electric power produced by the new facility. Earlier this week the Obama administration's EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson moved to revoke the project's permit and block construction of the plant. John Walke, EPA's Clean Air Director, says the move was closely coordinated with the White House as part of President Obama's agenda to combat global warming. U. S. Chamber of Commerce Vice President for the Environment William Kovacs says there are between 60 and 70 power plant construction projects stalled by EPA permit issues.

Meanwhile, the debate over proposed cap and trade legislation limiting CO2 emissions, and over FERC authority to establish routing of new power transmission grid lines stalls legislation which will let the construction of new technology power generation facilities move forward. Finally, the debates over whether hydroelectric power plants and nuclear reactor generated power do or do not count as "renewable energy" production are delaying groundbreaking of facilities for power production using those modalities. Unless Congress and the related executive agencies can get their acts together, there won't be any new power plants or transmission lines built using either new or old technologies any time soon.