House Republicans Slam EPA/Obama over Coal Retirements
Location: New York
Date: 2013-01-10
The Republican majority on the House Energy and Commerce
Committee said in a Jan. 8 statement that Georgia Power’s recent
announcement of plans to retire 15 mostly coal-fired units totaling
over 2,000 MW is the latest impact of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s “War on Coal.”
The high cost of EPA regulations is forcing the retirement of a
string of coal-fired power plants across the state of Georgia, the
committee noted. Georgia Power anticipates that nearly 500 employees
will be impacted by the closures.
“This announcement is the latest addition to a growing list of plant
retirements prompted by EPA’s regulatory actions,” said the GOP
statement. “Indeed, the North American Electric Reliability
Corporation (NERC) recently issued its Long-Term Reliability
Assessment, determining that over 70,000 MW of fossil-fired
generating capacity – predominantly coal – will retire over the next
10 years. Notably, NERC explains that 90 percent of those
retirements will take place over the next 5 years, aligning with the
compliance deadlines of new EPA regulations, such as the Utility
MACT Rule. If the forecasts are realized, plants responsible for 20
percent of the nation’s coal-fired generation will be lost by 2017.”
The country’s increasing number of plant retirements translates to
lost jobs, higher electricity costs, and reduced electric
reliability, the GOP majority said.
“This retirement announcement by Georgia Power is disappointing yet
unsurprising. Already, we have seen a number of coal plants fall
victim to the Obama administration’s assault on coal and I would not
be surprised if there are even more closures in the months ahead,”
said Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield, R-Ky. “We
are blessed with an abundance of coal which is the source of
affordable energy for millions of American families and countless
businesses. We will not stand idly by as the EPA seeks to regulate
coal into oblivion - House Republicans will continue pursuing
sensible policies that ensure coal remains a prominent fixture in
our 'all of the above' pursuit of North American energy
independence."
“Under the Obama Administration, the EPA has aggressively levied
job-killing regulations on affordable, proven energy sources,” said
Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., Vice Chairman of the Environment and the
Economy Subcommittee. “As we’ve learned with Georgia Power, EPA's
war on coal will continue to cost American workers their jobs.
Achieving energy independence is paramount to our economic
prosperity and national security, and House Republicans will
continue working toward a balanced approach to achieve that goal.”
Utility plan calls for coal shutdowns, conversions
Georgia Power said Jan. 7 that it expects to request approval from
the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) to decertify and retire
15 coal- and oil-fired units totaling 2,061 MW. The request to
decertify these units would be filed with the PSC on Jan. 31 in this
Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) subsidiary’s latest integrated resource
plan.
The retirements would be: Units 3 and 4 (coal) at Plant Branch;
Units 1-5 (coal) at Plant Yates; Units 1 and 2 (oil) at Plant
McManus; and Units 1-4 (Units 1-3 fire coal, Unit 4 fires oil or
gas) at Plant Kraft.
The company will also request that Units 6 and 7 at Plant Yates be
switched from coal to natural gas. And Unit 1 at Plant McIntosh will
switch from Central Appalachia coal to Powder River Basin coal. The
fuel switches are the result of the company's evaluation of the MATS
rule, other existing and expected environmental regulations, and
economic analyses.
The company also said that the long-delayed conversion of Plant
Mitchell Unit 3 from coal to biomass cannot be completed before
2017, should it move forward at all, due to continued regulatory
uncertainty related to the Industrial Boiler Maximum Achievable
Control Technology rule and other EPA rules.
Georgia Power received approval from the Georgia commission in March
2012 for the decertification of:
Plant Branch Units 1 and 2, which total 569 MW, effective Dec. 31,
2013, and Oct. 1, 2013, respectively; and
Unit 4C at Plant Mitchell, totaling 33 MW, effective March 26, 2012.
Sierra Club says these shutdowns part of nationwide trend
The Sierra Club said in a Jan. 7 statement about the Georgia Power
plans: "Nationwide, coal use is at its lowest levels in decades as
cleaner sources of energy are declining in price and coal is
becoming more expensive, and with today’s announcement, 129 coal
plants nationwide have been slated for retirement. Although Georgia
Power has been slow to invest in clean energy generation to meet
Georgia’s energy needs, today’s announcement demonstrates that
coal-fired power plants are no longer able to provide competitively
priced electricity in the Peach State."
“As a shareholder, I’m pleased that Georgia Power is phasing out a
quarter of their aging, increasingly expensive to operate,
coal-fired plants. Georgia Power’s own analysis showed that there
was no future for the plants.
Shareholders will benefit from a less risky, less water-intensive
portfolio that emphasizes energy efficiency, solar, and wind.
Customers will benefit too,” said Sam Booher, Chair of the Savannah
River Sierra Club group.
“While these retirements are an important step toward a twenty-first
century energy economy for Georgia, we are disappointed that Georgia
Power is asking coastal Georgians to bear additional years of coal
pollution," said Colleen Kiernan, Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter
Director. "Delaying the phase out of Plant Kraft a year will mean
more mercury in coastal blackwater rivers, where contamination
problems are already the most severe. The switch to Western coal at
Plant McIntosh may mean the plant runs far more than it does now,
creating far more pollution impacting local communities."
The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign was launched in 2002, and in
partnership with allied groups across the country, the Sierra Club
said it has prevented 174 new coal plants from being built and has
secured the planned retirement of 129 plants.
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