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HotAir.com
Coal
plants already announcing
shutdowns ahead of Obama admin’s regulations
By Erika Johnsen
July 11, 2013
That’s
really the goal, of course,
of the Obama administrations incoming regulations. The hardcore
eco-radicals will
openly admit that, yes, a “war on coal” is precisely what’s needed to
accomplish their goals, and that they do want to forcibly remove the
coal
industry from America’s (and someday, the world’s) energy scheme; but
the Obama
administration will deny the “war on coal” charge all day long,
insisting that,
why no, what we really want is just to nudge coal to become more clean
and
efficient, and eventually support a slow and steady shift in our energy
scheme’s proportions as we begin to tackle this regrettably
obstreperous
problem of climate change.
That’s
precisely why they made a
point last week of very loudly announcing their plans to directly
contribute $8
billion to an initiative to adapt these fossil-fuel “technologies to
use them
cleanly and more efficiently” as a crucial component of their supposed
“all of
the above” energy policy. Obama “expects fossil fuels, and coal
specifically,
to remain a significant contributor for some time,” his new Energy
Secretary
Ernest Moniz pointedly told reporters recently. Riiiiiight.
But
in anticipation of his
administration’s plans to regulate the heck of out both new and
existing power
plants, at least several coal plant have already announced forthcoming
shutdowns. Here’s one instance:
FirstEnergy
Corp will shut two
coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania by Oct. 9 due to weak power
prices and
the high cost of complying with stricter environmental rules, the
company said
on Tuesday.
In
a federal filing, FirstEnergy
said it would recognize an impairment charge of about $488 million
($321
million after tax) in the second quarter of 2013 for the shutdowns.
The
plants are Hatfields Ferry in
Masontown and Mitchell in Courtney, FirstEnergy said in a release. It
expects
the shutdown of the two plants to affect about 380 employees.
Together,
the company said the
plants could generate 2,080 megawatts, about 10 percent of its total
capacity.
One megawatt can power about 1,000 homes.
FirstEnergy
said it would cost
about $275 million to install the equipment at the two plants to comply
with
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics
Standards.
And,
oh look, here’s another:
COLUMBUS,
Ohio, July 11, 2013 –
American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) announced today that it expects to
retire
its 585-megawatt (MW) coal-fueled Muskingum River Plant Unit 5 in
Beverly,
Ohio, in 2015.
AEP
reached an agreement with other
parties in February to modify the company’s 2007 New Source Review
Consent
Decree and give AEP the option to retire Muskingum River Unit 5 or
refuel it
with natural gas. Due to the cost of compliance with environmental
regulations
and current market conditions, AEP has determined that it is unlikely
to make
the capital investment to refuel the unit. …
The
company previously announced
its intent to retire Muskingum River Units 1-4 (840 MW) in 2015.
Approximately
95 employees working at Muskingum River Plant Units 1-5 will be
impacted.
And
get ready for more shutdowns
and job losses, because that almost certainly won’t be the last of them.
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