Why Coal-Fired Power Plants Are Closing
Washington State has among the cleanest grid-mixes in the U.S., due to its prodigious hydro power. But there are times when The Evergreen State can’t generate enough electricity from within its borders and needs to import from neighboring states, and up until now that meant tapping into coal plants in Montana.
No more. Two plants are shuttering, far in advance of their planned closing.
Of course, that’s good new for those of us with lungs, regardless of the reason–yet it’s always interesting to understand the underlying cause for such events.
As usual in the demise of coal, it has nothing to do with environmental or human health concerns, but rather costs. Operating coal plants at this point in the vast transition away from fossil fuels is indefensible, simply because of the lower cost of competitive energy sources (natural gas and renewables).
It appears that our civilization is in the process of breaking its morbid compulsion to choking, poisoning and baking itself to death. It also seems that the real driver at play here is the almighty dollar, and had nothing to do with the value we place on human life. Ironic, to say the least.
Craig,
The ‘irony’ is in your description” ! “the vast transition away from fossil fuels,… because of the lower cost of competitive energy sources (natural gas and renewables).
Er,…what do you imagine is natural gas,if not a fossil fuel?
Only a brief period ago you were demonizing Natural Gas as “evil” and describing those involved in fracking as “greedy despoilers of the planet”, yet today we find you praising the construction of fossil fuel energy generation infrastructure in order to validate the fantasy of ‘renewable’ energy.
Major infrastructure investments like the construction of power plants, take years to plan and prepare. the process is long and incredibly expensive.
This excessive complicated and bureaucratic process has been the main killer of research,development and investment for US and European advanced nuclear power and clean(er) coal technology.
The process involves enormous costs before the first construction begins. No investor expects to be caught up in lengthy political/ environmental/ ideological fights lasting years and expensive delays by could in order for the whims of emotive, ill-informed, irrational “public interest groups” pursuing selfish political/social agenda.
The result is, no matter how hard the current administration tries to reverse the process, the USA (and Western Europe) will continue to fall behind in clean(er) energy technology due to the activities of the ignorant.
65% of the budget to build a Clean(er) Coal power plant, is taken up by completely extraneous expenses! Without the extraneous casts, Coal is not only more economic than natural gas, but also far more environmentally beneficial.
Anti-Coal activists are of the same ilk as the anti-nuclear fanatics. Their information and fears are decades out of date, completely erroneous, and deliberately disingenuous but highly emotive and politically effective.
Why would any sane investor bother wasting time, money and energy building the best and cleanest technology in the US and Europe where it’s unappreciated? Why not just mine coal in the US and export to nations who appreciate the construction of new coal fired generation ?
The tragedy of this process means not only does the US lose out on the best and most competitive technology, but there is no incentive for developing nations to buy “state of the art” US technology when the Chinese will build second-tier technology on very attractive terms. (PRC Belt and Road initiative).
The Chinese are the ones building the developing world’s infrastructure and capturing markets, raw materials and influence once considered the the domain of the West.
The US is losing the trade war with the Chinese, not because of a lack of determination by the US administration, but due to the stupidity and culpability of the American left.
The US is also losing the battle for the environment for the same reasons.
The worst ‘friend’ of the environment is the fanatical “eco-pest”. This creature is loud and vicious, but completely lacking in rationality or an ability to calmly debate. These troglodytes assume ‘moral’ poses and self-righteously babble slogans and pseudoscience, but lack any constructive objectivity or honesty.
Like the puritan evangelists of old, these creatures are no friend of science or technology. In fact, while posing as lovers of ‘nature’ and the environment’ their motivation is really just hatred for humankind and industrial prosperity.
They don’t want the best technology, that frightens them. What they seek is no advanced technology. Their object is the grey prison of “socialism”. The “government control’ they so desire is not for any betterment of mankind but to save them the fear and envy that others may be free to achieve what their restricted imaginations can not. They want rigid control and a reduction of liberty so they don’t feel so ordinary and inadequate.
I am an investor. I have no rigid ideology or political agenda. I prefer to invest in clean(er) because it’s the best investment for the future of mankind and our small planet.
But that desire to invest in the best environmental technology, doesn’t mean I should suspend objectivity and believe in Unicorns!
Investing requires analysis and objectivity. A process of gathering information to allow the best method of reaching a desired objective or objectives.
If I allow the process to become tainted with prejudice, irrational emotion, political loyalties etc, I’m no longer able to objectively pursue my goal. (I reserve those emotions for cheering for my football team).
The tragedy for the US environmental lobby, is by choosing to enrich on group of huge corporations with inefficient, inadequate, but ‘ideologically’ pure. products over another group of corporations with efficient but ideologically unpopular products, is they are destroying the environment more surely than the rapaciousness of the old resource barons.
Even worse, the US left are preventing the US remaining economically competitive as a time when Western values are under attack and facing formidable rivals.
Fortunately, here in Australia we have reversed this trend. The recent Federal election displayed a surprising degree of commonsense by the electors who refused to listen to ideological demagogues and environmental firebrands and returned to office sensible moderates with practical policies.
Craig, I say this in all sincerity, you are in danger of becoming locked into the politics of the past. Look around you, look at the amazing advances in technology, especially clean tech.
Today Bitcoin ( a completely invented digital currency)is worth $12,112 per coin, an increase in wealth of $12112000% in just 11 years ! Soon Facebook with launch it’s own digital currency with the potential to become the largest international currency, especially in the developed world.
In the last 5 years my young team have made more profits trading in such assets than our entire investment portfolio and managed hedge funds !
This is the world we now inhabit.