However, the investment may be risky enough
that the first major plants will have to be built in monopoly states —
where regulators allow the cost to be passed on to ratepayers — and not
a state like Pennsylvania that allows competition, Biden said.DEP
officials tout the plants as a much better investment because pollution
emissions are much lower than a conventional coal plant and the gas that
is generated from the coal can be sold to industrial customers as well
as being used to generate electricity.
In addition, the coal-to-gas plants operate more efficiently, getting
more energy from the coal while producing less waste and using less
water in the cooling process, they say.
Under the administration's initiative, tax-free bonds would be used
to help finance the coal-to-gas plants, McGinty said. A utility has
until 2007 to commit to a new plant and must have the facility up and
running by 2013.
To boost participation, the state has lined up U.S. Steel Corp. to
buy the natural gas and encouraged other manufacturers to do the same.
With more than 46,000 megawatts of generation capacity, Pennsylvania
is the country's second-largest power producer, Biden said. About 8
percent of that capacity comes from the smaller and older plants
targeted by the Rendell administration. Should a utility sign up for the
program, the state will ask the federal government to waive air quality
standards for the coal-fired plant until 2013, state officials said.
Pennsylvania's coal-fired power plants ranked second in the nation
for sulfur dioxide emissions in 2003, third in mercury emissions, fifth
in carbon dioxide emissions, and seventh in nitrogen oxide emissions,
according to an analysis of federal government data by the environmental
advocacy group PennEnvironment.