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Coal Casualties from the New EPA Rules

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It did not take long for the first few rejections and cancellations of coal-fired power plants after last Tuesday’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision on carbon emissions. The building blocks of carbon regulation are coming together more quickly these days, and coal is taking a serious hit.

First from Oklahoma, AES announced that it’s pulling plans for its 320-megawatt Shady Point coal plant.

Then on Friday, EPA rejected Northern Michigan University’s air permit for its proposed coal plant in Marquette and ordered Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality to consider regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

All this in response to the EPA announcing that it will reconsider the midnight memo issued by former Administrator Steven Johnson, meaning that new coal-fired power plants could soon be forced address their carbon dioxide pollution, the main cause of global warming.

These cancellations will be the first of many, we imagine, due to the increasing costs related to impending carbon legislation. Harlan Hentges, from our Oklahoma coalition partner Center for Energy Matters, put it well in one news article:

With (the) EPA ruling, the cost to AES to clean up carbon emissions from their existing Panama plant, much less a new plant twice the size, would make any company’s shareholders think twice about using coal to generate electricity, especially when cleaner technologies exist.

This is yet another sign that it’s a bad time to be in the coal business – and a great time to be in the clean energy business.

President Obama is making great strides for a clean energy economy, and more states and companies in the U.S. are starting to realize that’s the way of the future.