While pundits opine that the U.S. economy is in recovery, that doesn’t show up in the world of coal-fired electric power plants (perhaps lagging economic indicators). To wit:
- South Carolina public power system Santee Cooper has scrubbed its plans for a new 600-MW, $2 billion coal-fired power plant on the Pee Dee River, citing global warming and financial issues.
- The Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. has put on hold a $6 billion plan to extend its line into the Powder River Basin to compete against the Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads for coal hauling, according to the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune.
- Two national environmental groups—the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club—have asked Arkansas regulators to deny permits for a new $1.6 billion, 800-MW coal-fired power plant proposed by American Electric Power’s SWEPCO subsidiary for southwest Arkansas, arguing that the plant cannot comply with the federal Clean Air Act.
- Montana regulators have formally approved the plan by Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission, a generation and transmission cooperative, to scrap its plans for a 250-MW coal-fired generating plant in favor of a 120-MW gas-fired plant, but critics said they will oppose the gas-fired plant as well.
- The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest consumer of coal, is considering closing some of its oldest coal plants, including the four-unit, 700-MW John Sevier plant, replacing the plant with an 800-MW gas-fired combined-cycle plant, according the to the Chattenooga Times Free Press.
- Replacing coal-fired power plants with cleaner, more efficient gas-fired units is the best way to lower U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, according to BP America President Lamar McKay, according to a Reuters account.
