Tag

coal

Article, Corporations, Economy / Finance

Houston coal plant makes use of carbon capture tech

January 15, 2017

The woebegone U.S. coal industry received a rare bit of good news recently as the independent power company NRG Energy announced the completion of a $1 billion venture in Texas. Called Petra Nova, the project separates more than 90% of the carbon dioxide from 240 megawatts of coal-fired power at a generating plant near Houston. Petra Nova first captured carbon dioxide in September and has delivered more than 100,000 tons of the gas to an old oil field 80 miles away, where it is injected to produce more crude from the ground. (Read More)

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Climate, Energy, Government and Politics

Coal’s decline may continue even under Trump

November 21, 2016

During his campaign for the White House, President-elect Donald Trump promised to eliminate regulations that target coal-fired power plants, one of the primary causes of carbon emissions responsible for climate change. For Trump, a climate-change skeptic, getting rid of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which would curb carbon emissions from power plants by 32% by 2030, would give a boost to the declining U.S. coal industry and its decimated workforce across Appalachia. Even if the next president were to succeed, he would probably not reverse a years-long movement away from coal in the U.S. electric power industry, the biggest consumer of the black rock, according to the head of one of the nation’s leading electric utilities. (Read more)

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Energy, Policy, Regulations, Utilities and Providers

Why this Ohio utility lauds carbon controls

January 17, 2016

The year 2016 will be a crucial one for electric utilities as they prepare to meet new Environmental Protection Agency regulations requiring them to cut their carbon emissions more than ever. Among the milestones in EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which the agency issued last year, is a requirement for states to submit plans by September to comply with the policy’s requirement to reduce emissions by 32% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels. Utilities will play a big part in the development of those plans. (Read more)

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by Bill Loveless