POWER July 2013 - 6

SPEAKING OF POWER
Four Strange-But-True Stories
L
ast month's column, " Opinions à la
Carte, " prompted an unusually high
number of emails from readers. Unexpectedly,
the responses to the different
format were universally favorable. In my
decade of writing these editorials, this
was the first time reader response was
unanimous. It seems you favor bite-sized
appetizers rather than a single, large portion
of opinion. To assuage your appetite,
these four stories caught my eye over the
past month. My virtual door is always
open. Send your comments or ideas to me
at robertp@powermag.com.
UK Green Madness Continues
The coal-fired Drax power station, the largest
in the UK, burns 38,000 tons of coal
a day and supplies 7% of the UK's power
needs. New UK renewable standards forced
the plant to shut down the first unit in April
to begin a $1.1 billion conversion of its six
boilers from burning coal to burning wood
chips. Here's the rub: The plant will ultimately
burn 60% more than the entire UK annual
wood supply, so most of the wood chips will
be harvested from U.S. forests, shipped by
boat 3,000 miles across the pond, and then
hauled by train to the plant site.
The idea seems ludicrous until you follow
the money. To boost the use of " carbon
neutral " fuels, the UK government agreed
to give the same near-100% " renewable
subsidy " that now goes to onshore wind
farms to coal plant owners that make the
fuel switch. A new UK carbon tax, starting
at $24.80 per metric ton and doubling by
2020, took effect April 1 and also spurred
the conversion decision. UK news sources
reported that about half a million people
were unable to pay their rising energy
bills last winter; many resorted to burning
used books in their hearths because it was
cheaper than burning coal.
Environmentalists Trigger German
Coal Rebound
The rapidly increasing price of electricity in
Germany (currently 35¢/kWh for households,
17¢/kWh for industry, on average) has flattened
that country's economy and forced
many large industrial companies to find
6
new off-shore locations, often as not in the
U.S. Load migration coupled with lucrative
feed-in tariffs paid mostly by residential rate
payers has accelerated rate increases, with
no end in sight. Also, the EU's moribund
economy has deflated the cost of CO2
emission
allowances, from about €35.90 in 2008
to about €3 today, which means coal-fired
generation is now the country's cheapest
electricity supply option.
Ironically, the same German environmentalists
who succeeded in coaxing
trillion-dollar subsidies for wind and solar
ing " the new regulations.
In 60 sue-and-settle cases filed from
2009 through 2012, the EPA never defended
itself in court, allowing the demands of
the organization that brought the lawsuit
to prevail (34 of these cases alone were
filed by the Sierra Club). In each case, the
EPA failed to disclose the lawsuits to Congress,
stakeholders, or the Office of Management
and Budget, as required by law,
until the consent decree was finalized. So
much for President Obama's January 2009
promise that his administration would be
Loan guarantees have produced only 1,188
permanent jobs-a cost of $13.46 million
per job!
and convinced the government to close
the country's nuclear plants have unpredictably
caused German utilities to build
more coal-fired plants-up to 25 new
plants were reported by one German news
source. It's no wonder that the Washington
Post calls the EU energy policy the " greenenergy
basket case. "
EPA's " Sue and Settle " Sidesteps
Congress
Since 2008, environmentalists have adopted
the tactic of filing lawsuits to further
their overreaching regulatory goals rather
than pursuing change through the legislative
or regulatory process, as Congress intended.
The process only works when you
have an administration that is sympathetic
to the goals of those filing the suits.
The sue-and-settle process sidesteps the
regulatory rule-making process by bring
suit against the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), for example, for missing a
regulatory deadline. The EPA then enters
negotiation with the group that brought
the lawsuit to reach a settlement, which
is then approved by the federal court. The
agency next goes into overdrive to produce
new regulations to comply with the
court order, all the while blaming the environmental
group or the court for " requirwww.powermag.com
" committed
to creating an unprecedented
level of openness in government. " Congress
is now considering legislation to put
an end to this practice.
Job Creation Promise Falls Flat
Do you remember when in 2008, President
Obama promised to create 5 million
jobs over 10 years by investing stimulus
funds into " shovel ready " projects? You
are surely familiar with the many companies
that have gone bust after taking
taxpayer money (Solyndra is just the most
infamous). Often overlooked are those job
creation promises. In early May, the Department
of Energy (DOE) quietly released
on its website a list of loan guarantee
projects with the number of documented
permanent jobs created. A quick analysis
of the data shows that for the $15.99
billion spent on renewable projects since
2009, DOE Section 1705 (renewable projects)
loan guarantees have produced only
1,188 permanent jobs-a cost of $13.46
million per job! The data once again evidences
that the federal government cannot
compete with private enterprise when
it comes to picking technology winners
and permanent job creation. ■
-Dr. Robert Peltier, PE is POWER's
editor-in-chief.
POWER | July 2013
http://www.powermag.com
POWER July 2013

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