Post by jeffolie on May 22, 2012 15:12:59 GMT -6
jumping electric rates, Obama's anti-coal actions
Obama and the environmentalists won the election which allowed coal pollution regulations that impact electric rates significantly in selective coal electricity generation portions of America. The approach to allow coal electric generation to apply 'clean coal' methods has not yet been effective because of costly clean up requirements for the waste carbon ash recovered and stored in ponds that flood & contaminate areas when ash containment pools fail or other related failures.
Politics Matters
My sweet wife and I installed a solar electric home system 2 years ago in part anticipating higher electric rates where we live locking in our total electricity costs for the rest of our lives at a one time $10,000 or less initial and total investment (we get paid)... sure enough electric rates have jumped many times here. Our fixed cost was $10,000 which has been 50% recovered already in just over 2 years. After the 4.5 years or less now with higher rates, our electric costs will be negative because we get paid a little on our total annual generation for the year. When our adult children move out, then we will have a greater payment because of use will decline.
Politics of electric rates in Southern California have made coal fired electric generation less important because my electric utility is forced to buy 30% of its power from alternative sources such as geothermal, wind, solar and biomass sources. Elsewhere in America, 'progressive' and environmental politics are moving to close nuclear sourced electric generation. Here, a nuke powered electric generator has just closed probably for excellent reasons according to newspaper accounts of needed pipe replacements. It may never get to generate ever again.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Obama’s war on coal hits your electric bill
May 22, 2012
Obama’s War on Coal has already taken a remarkable toll on coal-fired power plants in America.
Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a shocking drop in power sector coal consumption in the first quarter of 2012. Coal-fired power plants are now generating just 36 percent of U.S. electricity, versus 44.6 percent just one year ago.
It’s the result of an unprecedented regulatory assault on coal that will leave us all much poorer.
Last week PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for 13 states (Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia) held its 2015 capacity auction. These are the first real, market prices that take Obama’s most recent anti-coal regulations into account, and they prove that he is keeping his 2008 campaign promise to make electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.”
The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt. In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt.
Why the massive price increases? Andy Ott from PJM stated the obvious: “Capacity prices were higher than last year's because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.” Northern Ohio is suffering from more forced coal-plant retirements than the rest of the region, hence the even higher price.
These are not computer models or projections or estimates. These are the actual prices that electric distributors have agreed to pay for new capacity. The costs will be passed on to consumers at the retail level.
House Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) aptly explained: “The PJM auction forecasts a dim future where Americans will be paying more to keep the lights on. We are seeing more and more coal plants fall victim to EPA’s destructive regulatory agenda, and as a result, we are seeing more job losses and higher electricity prices.”
The only thing that can stop this massive price hike now is an all-out effort to end Obama’s War on Coal and repeal this destructive regulatory agenda.
The Senate will have a critical opportunity to do just that when it votes on stopping Obama’s most expensive anti-coal regulation sometime in the next couple of weeks. The vote is on the Inhofe Resolution, S.J. Res 37, to overturn the so-called Utility MACT rule, which the EPA itself acknowledges is its most expensive rule ever.
This vote is protected from filibuster, and it will take just 51 votes to send a clear message to Obama that his War on Coal must end.
Of course, Obama could veto the resolution and keep the rule intact, although that would force him to take full political responsibility for the massive impending jump in electricity prices.
I have a form set up at www.WarOnCoal.com to make it easy to contact your senators on this crucial issue.
Phil Kerpen is president of American Commitment and author of “Democracy Denied.”
Read more: www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/05/22/obamas-war-on-coal-hits-your-electric-bill/print#ixzz1vdMTEXsJ
Obama and the environmentalists won the election which allowed coal pollution regulations that impact electric rates significantly in selective coal electricity generation portions of America. The approach to allow coal electric generation to apply 'clean coal' methods has not yet been effective because of costly clean up requirements for the waste carbon ash recovered and stored in ponds that flood & contaminate areas when ash containment pools fail or other related failures.
Politics Matters
My sweet wife and I installed a solar electric home system 2 years ago in part anticipating higher electric rates where we live locking in our total electricity costs for the rest of our lives at a one time $10,000 or less initial and total investment (we get paid)... sure enough electric rates have jumped many times here. Our fixed cost was $10,000 which has been 50% recovered already in just over 2 years. After the 4.5 years or less now with higher rates, our electric costs will be negative because we get paid a little on our total annual generation for the year. When our adult children move out, then we will have a greater payment because of use will decline.
Politics of electric rates in Southern California have made coal fired electric generation less important because my electric utility is forced to buy 30% of its power from alternative sources such as geothermal, wind, solar and biomass sources. Elsewhere in America, 'progressive' and environmental politics are moving to close nuclear sourced electric generation. Here, a nuke powered electric generator has just closed probably for excellent reasons according to newspaper accounts of needed pipe replacements. It may never get to generate ever again.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Obama’s war on coal hits your electric bill
May 22, 2012
Obama’s War on Coal has already taken a remarkable toll on coal-fired power plants in America.
Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a shocking drop in power sector coal consumption in the first quarter of 2012. Coal-fired power plants are now generating just 36 percent of U.S. electricity, versus 44.6 percent just one year ago.
It’s the result of an unprecedented regulatory assault on coal that will leave us all much poorer.
Last week PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for 13 states (Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia) held its 2015 capacity auction. These are the first real, market prices that take Obama’s most recent anti-coal regulations into account, and they prove that he is keeping his 2008 campaign promise to make electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.”
The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt. In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt.
Why the massive price increases? Andy Ott from PJM stated the obvious: “Capacity prices were higher than last year's because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.” Northern Ohio is suffering from more forced coal-plant retirements than the rest of the region, hence the even higher price.
These are not computer models or projections or estimates. These are the actual prices that electric distributors have agreed to pay for new capacity. The costs will be passed on to consumers at the retail level.
House Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) aptly explained: “The PJM auction forecasts a dim future where Americans will be paying more to keep the lights on. We are seeing more and more coal plants fall victim to EPA’s destructive regulatory agenda, and as a result, we are seeing more job losses and higher electricity prices.”
The only thing that can stop this massive price hike now is an all-out effort to end Obama’s War on Coal and repeal this destructive regulatory agenda.
The Senate will have a critical opportunity to do just that when it votes on stopping Obama’s most expensive anti-coal regulation sometime in the next couple of weeks. The vote is on the Inhofe Resolution, S.J. Res 37, to overturn the so-called Utility MACT rule, which the EPA itself acknowledges is its most expensive rule ever.
This vote is protected from filibuster, and it will take just 51 votes to send a clear message to Obama that his War on Coal must end.
Of course, Obama could veto the resolution and keep the rule intact, although that would force him to take full political responsibility for the massive impending jump in electricity prices.
I have a form set up at www.WarOnCoal.com to make it easy to contact your senators on this crucial issue.
Phil Kerpen is president of American Commitment and author of “Democracy Denied.”
Read more: www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/05/22/obamas-war-on-coal-hits-your-electric-bill/print#ixzz1vdMTEXsJ