by Alec Rawls
The upcoming rule:
… will require any new power plant to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced. The average U.S. natural gas plant, which emits 800 to 850 pounds of CO2 per megawatt, meets that standard; coal plants emit an average of 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt.
Can this stand, after Obama’s big energy-policy tour last week included not a single mention CO2, greenhouse gases, climate or global warming?
Read the rest here.
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The aim of the proposed rule is to encourage development and testing of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies.
The EPA expects the rule to have almost no impact on coal power plant construction or on CO2 emissions through 2030.
That expectation arises because economics so strongly favors construction of natural gas power plants even if there are no new rules imposed on coal power plants.
EPA’s economic analysis indicated that little or no coal power plants would be built by 2030 even in scenarios where electricity demand and natural gas prices both rose more than expected.
epa.gov/carbonpollutionstandard/pdfs/20120327proposal.pdf
Our IPM modeling, using Energy Information Administration (EIA) reference case assumptions, projects that there will be no construction of new coal-fired generation without CCS by 2030. Under these assumptions, the proposed rule will not impose costs by 2030. We also examined a scenario with both increased future natural gas prices and increased future electric demand. In this sensitivity case, we saw small amounts of coal-fired generation being built in 2030. Even under this sensitivity analysis with small amounts of new coal generation under conditions of high natural gas prices and simultaneously high electricity demand in 2030, we do not project that this proposed rule will impose notable costs upon sources.
The most likely locations for early CCS trials are near oilfields where enhanced oil recovery methods are needed. The CO2 can be injected into the reservoir to increase oil production.
I, against my grain, must give SnOtt a green (FCUK puns) thumb for info. re. carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies.
Thanks for intel. on NWO tax and spend scheme (or is it the other way around [no verde])!
Uranium boss