Coal still ND's largest carbon source, natural gas growing

Oct 1 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jessica Holdman The Bismarck Tribune, N.D.

 

According to the federal Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, coal-fired power plants are still the largest producers of carbon dioxide in North Dakota but natural gas facilities are the largest growing contributors.

Carbon emissions from large carbon producers in the state totaled nearly 37 million tons in 2013. Power plants made up more than 30 million of that, 29.9 million of which was coal power. The remainder, 12,387 tons came from new natural gas fired plants in the west.

Despite coal's looming presence, power plant carbon emissions fell by 1.8 percent from 2012 levels. Emissions from natural gas processing and transporting facilities rose 9.8 percent from 2012 and 22 percent from 2011 levels.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been recording facility emissions data since 2010, detailing greenhouse gas pollution trends and emissions broken down by industrial sector, region and individual facilities.

Nationwide in 2013, reported emissions from large industrial facilities were 20 million metric tons higher than the prior year, or 0.6 percent, driven largely by an increase in coal use for power generation, according to a statement from the EPA.

More than 8,000 facilities reported emissions to the program in 2013, which the EPA said represents 50 percent of total U.S. emissions.

The country's 1,550 power plants emitted more than 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.

In North Dakota, Coal Creek Station is the largest source of emissions at 9.2 million tons in 2013. This was a 4 percent drop in emissions from 2012 which may be accounted for by the plant's maintenance outage last fall, said Great River Energy spokesman Lyndon Anderson.

The station, with its two units also is the largest power plant in the state. Anderson said if data from 2009 had been reported, the numbers would have shown a drop from the previous year as that was when GRE started it dry fining process at the plant. Anderson also said the plant replaced its turbines a few years ago, making it more efficient and producing more power with less coal.

The next largest plant in the state for emissions is Antelope Valley Station with 6.9 million tons in 2013.

Nationwide, plant emissions declined 9.8 percent since 2010 but still account for 32 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas pollution. There was also an uptick in emissions of 13 million metric tons in 2013.

Mary Miller of Basin Electric Power Cooperative said its baseload plants will continue to be important to provide power. New natural gas plants the company has added are in response to increased demands above what the coal plants can support.

Petroleum and natural gas systems were the second largest source, reporting 224 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

The largest carbon emissions from a natural gas facility was 151,250 tons at Northern Border Pipeline's Manning facility. The facility's emissions increased 10 percent over 2012 levels. Tioga Gas Processing was the second largest with 123,986 tons, a decrease from 2012 levels.

The Great Plains Synfuels Plant, which converts coal into natural gas and other products saw a decrease in emissions in 2013 to 2.3 million tons of carbon. Miller said this could be due to the plant's maintenance outage or other factors.

Refineries were the third largest source, reporting 177 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions nationwide in 2013, up 1.6 percent from the previous year. North Dakota's sole refinery in Mandan, emitted 649,082 tons of carbon in 2013.

bismarcktribune.com

http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=33847175&