by jboullion | Aug 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on August 19:
Two state utilities said this week new federal pollution rules will lead to higher electricity costs come January.
Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay said its residential customers can expect an increase of more than $4 a month next year, including about $2 linked to the new rules designed to limit air pollution from coal-fired power plants.
The utility said it would see higher costs of about $32.6 million in 2012 from the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that was finalized recently by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That will result in rates going up by 6.8% instead of 3.4%, the utility said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month finalized stronger regulations for Wisconsin and 26 other states aimed at curbing air pollution from long-distance sources.
Environmental groups praised the new rule because it would reduce acid rain and air pollution as well as help curb health effects from dirty air linked to coal plants. The EPA projected the rule will save up to 34,000 lives a year and prevent more than 400,000 asthma attacks as well as 19,000 admissions to hospitals. . .
The new rule has been in development for several years but the first phase of compliance hits utilities in 2012. WPS said it won’t have time to install pollution controls by next year at its plants, but will be able to comply by purchasing credits from other utilities that have cut emissions.
The utility also said it plans to operate its coal plants less next year than it otherwise would have, and will buy more power from the Midwest wholesale power market as a result, a move that it said is also a factor in higher costs for customers. . . .
On Thursday [August 18], Wisconsin Power & Light Co. [Alliant] of Madison said it would face an additional $9 million in costs linked to the air pollution rule. With the change, the utility is now seeking an increase in 2012 of $20 million, or 2%, utility finance manager Martin Seitz said in a filing with state regulators.
Todd Stuart, executive director of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, criticized the increases, and he noted that large energy users like paper mills will see higher than average increases, compared with homeowners and small businesses. Paper mills served by WPS could see a 9% hike, he said. . . .
“Industry always cries wolf whenever EPA tries to reduce air pollution,” said Katie Nekola, lawyer with the conservation group Clean Wisconsin. “The fact is, the new rule will affect old, inefficient, unnecessary coal plants that should have been shut down long ago. The continued operation of those old units is costing ratepayers money, but you don’t hear industry complaining about that.”
by jboullion | May 6, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
We Energies plans to take initial steps toward converting its Milwaukee coal-fired power plant to burn natural gas, the utility’s chairman told shareholders Thursday.
The Milwaukee utility has been under pressure to address air pollution from the power plant located south of downtown in the Menomonee River Valley.
To comply with new federal pollution rules, the utility has been studying whether to convert the plant to natural gas or to add environmental controls that could allow it to continue burning coal.
“We believe we will need to convert the plant from coal to natural gas,” Chairman and Chief Executive Gale Klappa told shareholders at Wisconsin Energy Corp.’s annual meeting at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon.
We Energies will file an application with the state Public Service Commission in the second half of this year for an initial project that would be needed for that conversion to take place.
“That first step would be to put in a larger natural gas pipeline that could . . . supply natural gas to that facility,” Klappa said. “That will be a significant project. It will require PSC approval, it will require City of Milwaukee approval, and it will require us to update a 1949 natural gas line that runs through the area.”
Klappa did not announce a timeline for converting the plant from coal to gas. Utility spokesman Brian Manthey said the utility needs to ensure it has the approval and the ability to supply gas to the power plant before it makes a final decision.
“The (Cleaner Valley) coalition encourages We Energies to move as quickly as possible,” said the Rev. Willie Brisco, president of Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope. “People’s lives are impacted by Milwaukee’s dirty air each and every day.”
Built in the late 1960s, the Valley plant is the utility’s only major coal-fired plant in Wisconsin that lacks modern pollution controls. A much smaller coal plant in Wauwatosa provides steam to businesses at the Milwaukee County Grounds.
Environmental groups and a consortium of other groups in the Milwaukee area formed the Cleaner Valley Coalition to urge the utility to clean up the plant. In addition, the Sierra Club and Clean Wisconsin challenged an air pollution permit for Valley, saying it doesn’t go far enough to protect public health.
“We’re very happy to hear that they’re taking a step in the right direction,” said Emily Miota of the Sierra Club. “The biggest concern now is that they move quickly to make this happen.”
by jboullion | Apr 28, 2011 | Uncategorized
From a story by Martha Boehm on WEAU-TV, Eau Claire:
LA CROSSE, WI (WEAU)–Some students at UW-La Crosse want the state-run heating plant, that’s been on campus for decades, to stop burning coal. The No Coal Coalition wants the state to consider other fuel options.
“It may take a while, but what we really want is a definitive statement from them for a day and a year that they will be able to transfer our campuses off of coal,” said UW-La Crosse senior Jennifer Dausey.
Dausey has been working with the No Coal Coalition and Environmental Council for about a year. About a dozen students and faculty members want the Wisconsin Department of Administration, which owns the heating plant at UW-L, to stop burning coal to heat campus buildings.
“We always say that we should have been off coal yesterday,” Dausey said. “There’s no reason we need to keep burning this dirty energy. It’s not only destroying families in the mining process, but it’s also destroying our health and our lungs. It causes so much asthma it’s ridiculous.”
Dausey says the coalition not only wants the plant to stop using coal, but to cut back on its natural gas emission, which is the second way it produces energy.
“It’d be easiest to switch to burning biomass, which is like wood pellets and it’s going to become a bigger economy here in Wisconsin with our natural resources,” Dausey said.
by jboullion | Apr 22, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article in the Chicago Tribune:
MADISON, Wis.— A poll of Wisconsin residents finds strong support for increasing the use of wind energy, even if doing so would raise electricity bills several dollars per month.
The Wisconsin Public Radio poll was released Friday. It shows that 77 percent of respondents want to see the state invest more in wind energy. Reasons included decreasing the nation’s reliance on foreign oil and helping the environment.
A majority, 69 percent, wouldn’t mind eight to 10 wind-energy machines being placed closed to where they live, and 79 percent favor placing the machines offshore in Lake Michigan.
Click here for poll results.
by jboullion | Dec 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Mark Jaffe in the Denver Post:
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission voted Monday to shut six aging Front Range coal-fired power units and allow Xcel Energy to replace them with a new $530 million gas-fired plant.
Pollution controls, with a $340 million price tag, also were approved for the coal-burning Pawnee plant near Brush and the Hayden plant.
The commission still must decide what to do with the largest coal-burning plant in the Denver area — the Cherokee 4 unit.
“Cherokee 4 is the largest source of air pollution in the Denver area, and it needs to be shut,” said John Nielson, energy-program director for the environmental-policy group Western Resource Advocates.
The closures, which will occur between 2011 and 2017, are part of Xcel’s proposal to meet the state Clean Air- Clean Jobs Act, which seeks to cut nitrogen-oxide pollution by 70 to 80 percent.
Xcel would receive accelerated cost recovery for the investments in a comprehensive plan to cut pollution under the law.
The state is out of compliance with federal clean-air health standards and has to submit a plan next year to the Environmental Protection Agency showing steps to cut pollution.
