Ken SchreinerDelta Coal Power Plant: The Next Divine Strake?
You could call it the Big Texas Power Play. The proposed TXU/KKR deal for $45 billion could change Texas’ biggest utility and ultimately the entire power industry, including here in Utah, from an irresponsible, arrogant, polluting dinosaur into a green, futuristic public servant. This massive fissure in the cosmos started when TXU proposed building eleven new, coal-fired power plants, regardless of the huge environmental impacts. They even manipulated Gov. Perry into trying, illegally and unsuccessfully, to fast-track the proposal. Environmental groups protested loudly. Then, in a startling turn of events late last week, a group of eco-conscious equity fund companies led by KKR proposed buying TXU out and scrapping the new plants entirely. TXU is interested in making the deal because they won’t have to spend the rest of this century in court or paying for expensive new, green coal-burning technology, making the whole venture unprofitable and therefore, not worth it. The ramifications are Magnitude 9 for all of us, especially here. Utah could get at least one new 950-megawatt coal-fired plant built near Delta by Intermountain Power in the next few years pending approval. The Sierra Club and Grand Canyon Trust are fighting it, saying the proposed plant fails to comply with the federal Clean Air Act. In granting the permit, the Utah Air Quality Board said the green groups do not have the expertise to allege environmental threats, but the state supreme court later said they do. An appeals hearing is scheduled for October. The Oregon PUC recently rejected a similar proposal for a new plant by PacifiCorp, a principal owner of the Delta project, because they felt the company did not prove the need for the Utah plant and another in Wyoming. With a long, costly court battle and costly environmental controls staring at them, Intermountain Power should look closely at the TXU/KKR deal and decide if they want to pull a Divine Strake and cancel the new plant now or billions of dollars later. It’s another great opportunity for alternative energy, especially when you consider the wealth of renewable and other less-polluting energy sources Utah has: hydro, solar (everywhere, especially south), geothermal (northwest), wind (east) and even nuclear. And the reasons to kill Delta don’t stop there. The new plant was designed mostly to provide power to the ever-hungrier California market.
But Gov. Schwarzenegger recently prohibited the state from accepting power from other than clean energy sources, which coal is not. So is there still enough demand to justify construction of the new Delta plant? Several Utah communities have already agreed to buy power from it, despite opposition from residents concerned about air quality. But with Utah’s air problems only getting worse, the current Delta proposal not only looks environmentally stupid and short-sighted, it also looks less economically feasible because of the legal costs, environmental control costs, loss of the California market and potentially others like Las Vegas, who is turning uncharacteristically green lately. Also, Congress is considering several bills that would tax carbon emissions to pressure the industry to reduce greenhouse gases. The tax could force the new power plant to pay $8 a ton or more for each of the 7 million tons of pollution the new plant would emit into the atmosphere. I wonder if we’ll even get to the October appeal hearing before the whole thing is deep sixed. If there’s still profit to be made, of course. Like Divine Strake, Heaven forbid they consider the health of Utah residents. Like Divine Strake, support from the legislature and Gov. Huntsman would help. But their cozy relationships with EnergySolutions, the mining and power industries tell me their loyalties lie with someone other than The People on this one. Time to call Terry Wood.
February 25th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
And Steve Erickson.
Ken, do you know how it occurred that they acquired these valuable pollution rights in the first place? I would suggest that KKR negotiated just enough of a share to cause a rethink if the endeavor, not necessarily the whole ball of wax. That could come later if need be.
February 25th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
No, I don’t. I haven’t seen that reported anywhereThe question appears to be whether to build three plants or none. From what I read, TXU is using the scrapping idea to drum up support for the plan which tells me there’s something else involved. KKR may still want to build three. Whatever happens, it sure is sending shockwaves through the industry- as it should. I’m surprised W hasn’t called Gov. Perry himself.
February 25th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
When I think of how flat and open Delta is, and how easy setting up solar would be there, how much the SUN shines. I cringe at the prosepect of a coal burner there. It can happen as there is about nothing to do over there. The money. I have driven through there, the Sevier Desert to the West, just waiting for Solar.
It is terrible for Utah to be a grip in the current mentality, Utah’s “Big Smoke” SL-can’t SEE. It is a health issue with an aging population, and all the tykes in the Metro region
Good for AHnold, his State could gain independence with his stance. You know Waxman would LOVE to do the Texas boys in, after what they did to California, he has the goods on them. I do not understand why they don’t act forcefully on these cretins. I guess the wheels grind slowly, let’s hope they grind the cretins to very fine, dry, light, POWDER!!
We must rally behind those that would COMBAT these people. Yammering is useless, make them RUN! General Strike!! Maybe WE can get California to fight for your clean air, tasking it to Utahns’, as outnumbered as you are up there, isn’t the approach. Get California to SPIT in their eye, and hit ‘em where it hurts.
The money, The money, The money, The money,…. The money….
February 26th, 2007 at 8:28 am
You’re right about Delta and solar. If you look at the official map, it’s in the high solar region. It’s lack of balls, lack of imagination and political corruption that lead us to make these stupid decisions. But with the help of great writers like Krugman, McKibben, you and me we’re changing the world. Though I approve heartily of a general strike. I could use a few days off. How Vermont of you.
February 26th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Things happen in Vermont Ken, you know that. I wouldn’t suggest it, if it wouldn’t work.
February 26th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Great site Ken! Colorado has a 50% payback plan for any solar you implement on your home.
The only way for solar to be successful is to do it yourself. No waiting for government will make it happen. That said the Colorado incentive could be tried in Utah, but they are more interested in the money to be made from coal burning. You should move over here. Still the west, still ideological challenges, but the general mood is more progressive.
February 26th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Thanks! I lived in Denver from 1981-87 and loved it. I’d probably still be there if I didn’t have a wife (ex) who hated it. It was pretty crazy back then during the oil shale rush/bust. It reminds me of a strange mix of both Vermont and Utah for reasons too complicated to go into. Both are great. I got my measly $2,000 back from Utah for my solar project here. Utah’s problem is it’s confusing common sense with belligerence: change bad, tradition good. Before long, you have the reputation for being non- or anti-progressive because you are.
February 27th, 2007 at 6:54 am
Pretty funny Ken for a State (Utah) created by common sense Vermonters, with a belligerent nutty religious streak. I went to High School in Wilmington VT., about 10 minutes from Whitingham, the birthplace of Brigham Young.
The problem with Utah is that is simply confused. That is what happens when your religious template, which runs your life, comes on plates in a burlap gunny sack, that can only be viewed by one man, the “interpreter”, who says that if YOU look at them, you’ll die. Then there is his fondness for young girls, and dislike of manual labor, which made many a presbyterian look askance at the likes of joe.
The oil shale is back, microwaving in place. Colorado is drilling like mad again, and millionaires will be made. It will thrive as long as it holds out, and Denver is growing in a most uncontrolled cancerous way. The Mountain towns are complete communities now, and the Western Slope is sunset retirement land. With solar everywhere.
February 27th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
and you can buy a real beer anywhere, except on Sunday dammit, how does Colorado get stuck with a New England blue law You can get pints and growlers on Sunday at the breweries and brew pubs, and they are numerous, and very good.
February 27th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
I could sure go for a Long Trail or Otter Creek right now. Vermont’s microbrews- on a purely per capita basis- were more plentiful than Colorado or Utah and the quality was on par. In the 1980s, the only half decent beer in Colorado was Henry Weinhard’s- from Oregon.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Not anymore. Colorado has too many local brewopubs to mention, and contract brewers of quality, it is a toss up. Some really tasty lagers, and one guy in Glenwood is brewing a REAL German Pils.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Weather Network…
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…