Chase Power, the parent company behind the $3 billion Las Brisas coal power plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, announced yesterday that it was cancelling the project.
[…]
Freysinger made it very clear who was responsible for the projects death. “The (Las Brisas Energy Center) is a victim of EPA’s concerted effort to stifle solid-fuel energy facilities in the U.S., including EPA’s carbon-permitting requirements and EPA’s New Source Performance Standards for new power plants,” he said.
The Las Brisas power plant had been part of a larger Las Brisas Energy Center project planned for Corpus Christi’s Inner Harbor.Economists had projected that in the first 5 years of construction and operation the project would create as 1,300 direct and 2,600 indirect jobs. Now none of those jobs will exist.
No suprise here. He promised to destroy the coal and power business when he ran the first time for president. As someone here said “I’m not worried he won’t keep his promises, I’m worried he will.”
Harbingers of things to come: obama has released the EPA and given them the green light for their fatwa on coal. Wait until cap/tax hits, and existing coal plants are shut down. Rolling blackouts will be the norm, along with outrageous hikes in electricity prices.
I’m not sure we’ll escape the latter up here, either. It’d be very easy to sell juice to states with brownouts/blackouts at record market rates, and what would be the effect on our prices in that case, where the commodity price spikes in the face of excessive demand?
mhb23re
Life is still too easy for most. It will take many more power plant cancellations before the regular brown-outs and outages cause enough misery that public support with shift to support more power generation of whatever sort. Note that I’m not gleeful about the possibility, only sighing with acceptance that some will not realize the effects of their (and their acceptance of government’s) actions until reality shows up at their door and slaps them around a for a while.
Let `em freeze in the dark.
The pity is, that the Texans didn’t vote for the Great Foulness in Washington, nor for his minions.
So which state will be the first to secede from the union?
You can only piss off Texans so much before they hit back – Hard!
Those that voted for the Great Foulness and his policies are like those totally out of touch people in Canada who live in condos in the downtown of cities and vote for similar Anorexia Envirosa policies put forth by politicians. They are the type that think milk is produced in jugs at the store and not cows, food comes in packages and not from farms, heat magically comes from a vent, and the government will increase the handouts to cover the increased costs.
I think that new coal-fired thermal plants time has ended in NA, for now at least. They cannot compete with natgas for costs since coal plants require more infrastructure than gas – ash pits, cooling water, effluent ponds, coal storage, etc. Mining and exporting coal will continue to parts of the world without better options or, like the EU, refuse to allow technology improvements like fracking. Besides, neither the coal nor the knowledge of coal plants will disappear and someday coal may again be useful.
The problem is that the EPA regs will shut down existing plants that are a)still needed b)have decades of useful life left c)are not a proven threat to human health or the environment. Some of the oldest,dirtiest plants probably do need to be shut down but those that are relatively modern should be allowed to operate under previous rules for a reasonable period of time. Reliable, affordable power is too important to people and business to be left up to the whims of fads and politicians.
North America looks far less polluted than it did 60 years ago when I was a kid. I’ve been in other parts of the world looking at the air and water pollution(South America, Asia) that remind me a little of those days.
The Greenies won’t be happy until we’re back living in caves. Ironically, when that happens, we’ll be burning wood putting our privies over streams (or maybe not bothering with privies, like folks in other places), and guess what…
Smartest man eveeeeeeer. Silly us we should have been stoned through out high school so we could be as smart as the one.
It is my considered opinion Keystone is doa.
But looking back and remembering the day the oceans started to recede and the planet started to heal, it’s not too much of a sacrifice is it? How far back are the waters now anyway? Is the planet all better yet?
But never fear, China will burn that nasty coal for you, if you ship it at a loss .
More stimulus.
Freezing in the dark or baking in the heat, with rolling blackouts and not a dollar left in your jeans, will go along way to clear the delusions about the competency of authority from the voters minds.
// I think that new coal-fired thermal plants time has ended in NA, for now at least. They cannot compete with natgas for costs since coal plants require more infrastructure than gas – ash pits, cooling water, effluent ponds, coal storage, etc //
Goods points all. But this particular plant has immediately available fuel, water etc [see the piles & location]
Why the Las Brisas Coal Plant Air Permit Was Reversed
// The plant, called Las Brisas, would use petroleum coke — carbon solids left over from refining — for power generation in a way much like coal, with much the same emissions. It was first proposed in 2008, and is the only proposed coal plant within a city’s limits in the entire country, according to the Sierra Club. It would sit on the northern side of the Corpus Christi ship channel, across from a residential area known as “Refinery Row,” which already sits in the midst of six major refineries. //
On Refinery Row, a Life of Fires, Smoke and Sickness
Donald Duck knows his heavy metals.
I read your links but they are not an unbiased source. Specifically:
“About StateImpact Texas
StateImpact Texas is a collaboration of local public radio stations KUT Austin, KUHF Houston and NPR. Reporters Mose Buchele, Terrence Henry and Dave Fehling travel the state to report on how energy and environmental issues affect you. Read their reports and listen to them on NPR member stations.”
That is not to say they are wrong since chemicals and emissions are part and parcel of any manufacturing and production industry. An official source with relevant data instead of emotional anecdotes would be more convincing. From experience, older layers of soil generally show more pollution. Things have gotten better, not worse over time.
The problem is that not all of the newest EPA standards have solid scientific justification. The EPA has developed a radical wing that is more about anti-development than health and environmental protection.
The US must be a voluntary union. That’s how it was formed and I don’t suspect the Civil War really changed that fact. Texas is one of the few states to give up its independence to join the US.
thank gawd no EPA in canuckistan.
alberta burn coal for power. sell to BC, so they can sell “green” hydro to US
who foolin who?
and yes keystone XL likely doa. why build that when bitumen already seeling at high discount to only customer?
LC Bennett —
I grant that stateimpact.org are journalists, not an official organization, & that studies with data are the gold standard. But the sources of such — industry science, government science & universities — can also be wrong, especially when the two “directed” sources exert force on the “curiosity driven” university work. The recent history of oil sands pollution research is an example.
Whether new standards are better or worse has to be determined other than by age. So we would agree there.
But in a cage like the following, I’d put my money on “newer will be better”
From the Texas Tribune:
// The Railroad Commission of Texas regulates one of the most advanced industries in the world — oil and gas drilling. Yet the commission’s software systems, many of its rules and even its name are from another era […] //