Coal shutdowns detrimental to PA

February 7, 2014 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

The Pennsylvania Coal Alliance is advocating for an examination of state energy costs and the factors driving them, as well as issues compromising the reliability of the electricity supply.

The disused Huber coal breaker in Ashley, Pennsylvania. Credit: L Hoon/Wikimedia Commons

A new study commissioned by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) fueled the alliance's call for legislative hearings on why costs are increasing. The alliance is also questioning why PJM Interconnect, the regional power grid operator, did not have access to reasonably priced wholesale power during recent cold weather.

The ACCCE study, which updates 2011 state-based analyses, revealed that 49 percent of Pennsylvania households spend an average of 19 percent of their after-tax income on energy -- taking as much as 72 percent of the poorest Pennsylvania families' incomes.

"The alarming thing is that this study was completed before PJM had to request special permission to exceed a $1,000 per megawatt-hour price cap on wholesale power during the recent polar vortex," Alliance CEO John Pippy said. "As a result, many Pennsylvanians are in for considerable sticker shock as they receive their electric bills over the next couple of months."

The average wholesale price in the PJM region last year was $42 per megawatt-hour, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Pippy noted that federal emission standards resulted in the closing of three coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania last year. Recently proposed standards would force the closing of many more.

"The new standards fail to take into account what is achievable with current technology," Pippy said. "As a result, the federal government is unilaterally taking coal out of the nation's energy mix, much to the detriment of Pennsylvania's economy and the state's energy consumers."

Coal-fired electricity is significantly more affordable than some other energy sources, and is much less susceptible to wild price swings, according to Pippy. Moreover, technology has helped to greatly reduce coal emissions of sulfur, nitrogen, particulates and even carbon, he said, although imposing unachievable standards would have the effect of discouraging the advance of clean-coal technology.

"No energy source is perfect, but coal has its place in the nation's energy mix," Pippy said. "We don't need to choose between environmental quality and affordable, reliable electricity. We can have both."

For more:
- see this report

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/coal-shutdowns-detrimental-pa/2014-02-07