Call to Action in Paducah; IEEFA Makes Page 1 of The Guardian, Coal Phaseout in Denmark
THE PADUCAH SUN HAS PUBLISHED A CALL TO ACTION on the Paducah Power System’s costly deal with Prairie State Energy Campus.
The Sunday editorial—which cites research by IEEFA—questions PPS Interim General Manager Mark Crisson’s counsel to be patient and wait for managers of Prairie State to get the plant into a condition that would produce electricity at competitive rates.
The editorial is one of several over the past few months that the paper has published challenging a long-term contract between PPS and Prairie State that locks ratepayers into decades of debt and makes electricity in Paducah the most expensive in Kentucky.
Excerpts:
- “Our take is that PPS can’t afford to wait much longer hoping it happens. One major reservation we have has to do with reports that lower-than-expected coal quality from Prairie State’s onsite mine is a driving factor in the plant’s poor performance. If so, that’s a situation that’s not going to get any better. “
- “If ratepayers already have been clipped for $40 million, it would be prudent for PPS to ask the state attorney general to look into how Prairie State was marketed to our community to see whether there might be some financial recovery available from the promoter – Peabody Coal – or PPS’ own professional advisors. “
- “Our sense is that PPS faces a call for action from the community. It won’t be good enough simply to wait for rates to stabilize at their current non-competitive levels, especially if IEEFA is correct in its future cost projections.”
Here’s the full editorial (subscription required).
IEEFA’S RECENT PAPER ON RISKS FACING TAR-SANDS DEVELOPERS GETS FRONT-PAGE mention today on the Guardian’s website.
“According to the new paper, the industry’s current inability to build new pipelines has the potential to cancel most, if not all, planned new projects,” the Guardian reports.
IEEFA released the study last week with Oil Change International. The Guardian posted the headline “Public Opposition Has Cost Tar Sands Industry $17bn, Says Report” as the top breaking-news item this morning. The coverage is notable in part for the audience it draws: TheGuardian.com is the seventh most-visited news site in the world, according to Alexa, the global web-analytics company.
Excerpts:
“Anti-tar sands campaigns have cost the industry a staggering $17bn (£11bn) in lost revenues, and helped to push it onto the backfoot.”
“The industry is currently facing a decline in increased capital expenditure on new tar sands projects, due to problems in transporting the crude, which the study links to public campaigns.”
“‘This opposition has achieved a permanent presence as public sentiment evolves and as the influence of organisations opposed to tar sands production continues to grow,’ said Tom Sanzillo, director of finance at IEEFA, and one of the lead authors on the report.”
REUTERS OVER THE WEEKEND REPORTS ON A ‘BIG GREEN SHIFT’ IN DENMARK to phase out coal use from 2025-2030. Denmark relies on coal for about a third of its electricity.
A government minister said a coal-elimination plan is in the works and will be released when it is formalized.
Excerpts:
“’The cost (of phasing out coal) would not be significant,’” Climate, Energy and Building Minister Helveg Petersen told Reuters.
“Even though Denmark’s greenhouse gas emissions are falling sharply, the heavy dependence on coal means per capita emissions of 9.25 tonnes in 2012 were still above the European Union average of 8.98.”
“The Danish Energy Association, representing energy firms, said a faster phase-out of coal would bring risks that wind turbines could not meet demand on calm days.”
Here’s the full item, filed under a Copenhagen dateline.
— Karl Cates
[email protected]
Twitter @ieefa_institute
