POWER June 2013 - 6

SPEAKING OF POWER
Opinions à la Carte
H
ave you ever experienced a restaurant
menu overflowing with so many
tasty entrées that making your selection
seemed an impossible decision?
Your deliberation probably ended when
the waiter began tapping a pen on his order
pad and your dinner-mates gave you
the evil eye. Picking a commentary topic
each month is much like scanning the dinner
menu. There are usually many topics
that deserve a good slice and dice, but it's
the deadline that forces a decision.
I decided to try something different this
month. Instead serving up a one-course
meal, we're having smorgasbord. There
are enough opinions here to either satiate
your appetite or give you heartburn.
I trust you'll find the servings to your liking.
Bon appétit!
Unexpected Candor. In a mid-April report,
the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) says that tighter leakage
control on natural gas wells resulted in
an average annual decrease of 41.6 million
metric tons of methane emissions
from 1990 through 2010, or 850 million
metric tons overall. That is a reduction of
20% from the agency's earlier estimates.
These reductions occurred while natural
gas production grew by 40% since 1990.
This isn't surprising, because well producers
are aware that losing product to the
atmosphere isn't good business. The new
EPA data is " kind of an earthquake " in the
debate over drilling, said Michael Shellenberger,
president of the Breakthrough Institute,
an environmental advocacy group.
Expect the leakage rates to continue to
drop in the future, frustrating fracking
foes.
Shale Gas Reserves Estimates Increased,
Again. The April 9 biennial assessment
report from the Potential Gas
Committee on future U.S. natural gas resources
shows that the gas boom should
continue for quite some time. The committee's
future gas supply estimate rose
22.1% over its 2010 estimate to 2,688
trillion cubic feet. To put that number into
perspective, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration projects natural gas usage
for 2013 and 2014 to average 70.2 Bcf/d
6
for all uses. That translates into about
100 years of supply at today's usage rate.
Expect reserve estimates to continue to
rise faster than usage growth. The " bridge
fuel " is now the fuel express lane.
Solar Boom Then Bust. MidAmerican
Solar and SunPower began construction,
in late April, of their 579-MW Antelope
Valley Solar photovoltaic project, located
in Kern and Los Angeles counties. The
project, when completed at the end of
2015, will sell power to Southern California
Edison under long-term purchase contracts.
At a March Solar Summit hosted
by Burns & McDonnell, representatives of
the three major California utilities agreed
that the number of these large projects
is limited because the number of future
sites this large are limited, current contracts
have lower purchase prices, onetime
federal government loan guarantees
have expired, the solar investment tax
credit ends in 2016, and California utility
solar project contract goals are oversubscribed.
Once the few large projects in
California's queue are digested, expect to
see the market focus on smaller projects
(<50 MW).
Pass the Nuclear Buck. Congress has
been unable to unscramble the failed
Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA)
and its 1987 Amendments in which Yucca
Mountain was specified as the nation's
single repository for spent nuclear fuel.
Nuclear plant owners have since put about
$35 billion into a fund created to pay
for the Department of Energy's (DOE) development
of a storage site ($12 billion
was spent on Yucca Mountain). The legal
deadline for completing Yucca Mountain
was 1998. Failing to meet that deadline,
the DOE has since doled out about $1.2
billion in damages to utilities, with dozens
of lawsuits and claims pending. Utilities,
justifiably, want their money back.
The congressional response: Legislation to
form a new Nuclear Waste Administration,
located outside the DOE, was introduced
in the Senate in late April. Don't add another
bureaucracy; fix the NWPA and its
amendments that caused the problems in
the first place.
www.powermag.com
Carbon Appealed, Again. Southeastern
Legal Foundation on April 19 filed
a Petition for Writ of Certiorari with
the U.S. Supreme Court " challenging
the Obama Administration's EPA regulations
on greenhouse gas emissions. "
The petition names its sponsors as 12
members of Congress and 15 companies
and associations. The writ of certiorari
is a legal request for the Supreme Court
to review a lower court's ruling, specifically,
the June 2012 ruling by the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia that upheld the EPA's interpretation
of the Clean Air Act. The
stage is now set for the long-expected
showdown about regulating carbon dioxide
as a pollutant under the Clean Air
Act. The Supremes botched the 2007
Massachusetts vs. EPA decision that has
since morphed into a crazy quilt of absurd
regulations and " tailoring " rules. I
still believe the court wants to fix the
problem it caused.
Breaking Ranks. The Economist has
written often about its view of a looming
climate catastrophe and has supported
radical reductions in the consumption of
fossil fuels for many years. In its March
30 issue, the magazine reviewed the latest
climate change scientific findings,
particularly with respect to the 16+ year
global temperature standstill that has
occurred while atmospheric CO2
emissions
have increased 50% since 1990.
The magazine didn't completely reverse
course in its long-held views, but it did
present a very even-handed assessment
of how " unsettled " the science remains.
The Economist even took a shot at the
alarmists: " If climate scientists were
credit-rating agencies, climate sensitivity
[the relation between atmospheric
concentrations of CO2
and warming]
would be on negative watch. " I hope
other media sources follow its lead.
Let me know your thoughts about my
à la carte servings of opinion. Send your
orders to robertp@powermag.com, and
don't forget the tip. ■
-Dr. Robert Peltier, PE is POWER's
editor-in-chief.
POWER | June 2013
http://www.powermag.com
POWER June 2013

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