Christmas in the dark?

Could be if the EPA isn't reined in and quick:
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The EPA Is Dreaming Of A Blackout Christmas

Flashlights make great stocking stuffers.

by John Hayward

12/21/2011

In another triumph for government transparency, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signed the final MACT Rule last Friday, but she’s been keeping it secret until a formal announcement planned for today.  MACT stands for Maximum Achievable Control Technology.  It covers emission rules for various industries, controlling the technologies the EPA finds achievable in the same sense that a choke chain controls a dog.

The new MACT rules are going to come down hard on mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, despite serious questions raised by critics about the EPA’s methodology for calculating costs and benefits from the rule.  Many of the benefits it claims to provide already emanate from the Clean Air Act, while its project costs are deliriously underestimated, compared to independent analyses.  One reason the EPA is keeping things under wraps is that it got tired of all the criticism. 

How high are those costs likely to be?  The Associated Press estimated that “more than 32 mostly coal-fired power plants in a dozen states will be forced to close because of the new, more stringent regulations. Another 36 plants are at risk of closing.”  This will drain at least 14.7 gigawatts, “enough power for more than 11 million households,” off the grid between 2014 and 2015.  The town manager of Glen Lyn, Virginia worries that his entire town might actually be wiped out when their power plant is shut down by the new rules. 

The AP nevertheless assures us that “no lights will go dark,” which sounds less like a prediction than a prayer.  How do we lose 14.7 gigawatts without any lights going dark? 

And that’s a fairly lowball estimate of the impact from these plant closings.  Last month, the Institute for Energy Research estimated that the true effect will be nearly double what the EPA estimates, or at least 28 gigawatts of generating capacity… and even that might not be the end of it.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the highly respected North American Electric Reliability Corporation believes that “on top of the 38 gigawatts of generation that is already being run below normal levels or slated for early retirement, another 36 to 59 gigawatts will come offline by 2018, depending on the ‘scope and timing’ of EPA demands.”  (Emphasis mine.) 

So the total damage might be twice as bad as the Institute for Energy Research fears, and they’re predicting twice as much energy loss as the EPA.  Building new power plants to take up the slack is not something that can be done quickly.  As the Wall Street Journal explains, “there are bottlenecks in permitting, engineering, financing, and building a new plant and then tying it to the electricity networks.”

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Go read the whole thing.

Like it or not, electricity from coal powers our economy, what Osama has left for us. He's betting on unicorn farts powering his windmills, no doubt.