Monday, December 12, 2011
Environment Sierra Club: LS Power to drop 2nd coal-fired unit at Plum Point
Posted by Max Brantley on Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 10:32 AM
The Sierra Club announced today it had struck an agreement with LS Power to cancel plans for two additional coal-fired electricity generating stations, one of them a second unit for the Plum Point plant near Osceola.
The Sierra Club called it a victory for environmental health.
NEWS RELEASE
Today, the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign announced the cancellation of plans to build two proposed coal-fired power plants in Arkansas and Georgia. Pursuant to a legal agreement with Sierra Club, New Jersey-based LS Power announced that it will cancel plans to build the Plum Point II project proposed for northeastern Arkansas and the Longleaf Energy Station project proposed for Blakely, Georgia.
“Today is a victory for the public health and environmental health here in Arkansas,” said Glen Hooks, Senior Campaign Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “Canceling Plum Point II will keep almost 4 million tons of carbon dioxide out of our air each year, along with dozens of other hazardous air pollutants. Keeping more dirty coal out of Arkansas is a huge step forward for our state.”
This victory marks the 160th and 161st coal plants canceled since Sierra Club launched its Beyond Coal campaign in 2005. The agreement comes as part of a nationwide agreement with Sierra Club that requires LS Power to abandon the Plum Point II and Longleaf projects and imposes strict new limits on air pollution from the new Sandy Creek coal-fired power plant in Texas.
"LS Power, like our nation, is moving away from a past fueled by dirty coal into an energy future where our power sources are clean and renewable,” said Dawn Farver, Chair of the Arkansas Chapter of the Sierra Club. "Coal is a dangerous investment. Since November 2008, only two new coal plants have broken ground in the entire country.
"As a nation, we should become leaders in renewable energy technology and provide a world for our children where the water is safe to drink and the air is safe to breathe. Personally, my money is on moving forward, not looking back.”
Hooks concluded by saying, “While there are a handful of new coal plant proposals left in our nation, the vast majority of proposals have been defeated or abandoned in the last six years. I’m celebrating today’s news, and looking forward to the day when no more dirty coal plants will be built here in the Natural State.”
Comments (8)
Showing 1-8 of 8
Congratulations to the Sierra Club and others who have waged war on coal-fired power plants. The end of the war may be in sight.
Perhaps America won't be dead last in clean energy production like we are in providing quality, affordable health care to every American.
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Those wall sockets are not connected to the electricty fairy, SP. How about turning off your computer? I notice that the warming alarmists are big wasters of energy.
What do the power companies get in return for abandoning construction of new coal-fired plants? Surely something.
While I can appreciate how chichi it is on this blog to rejoice over the downing of another coal fired generating plant, where is the power going to come from that these two plants were supposed to provide?
We already generate far more power than we need in this country... and waste a massive percentage of existing power generation. Massive insulation of homes and business could easily save far more than quite a number of new plants would generate... and the work would be stimulating for so many *gasp!*
Mass conservation, while simultaneously switching over to green grid and generating infrastructure as much as technologically and humanly possible is what should be championed.
More coal is like putting puss on an infection.
To those asking where power will come from.
First, Plum Point was a merchant plant, so it may have powered your houses once in a blue moon. Investor-owned utilities (IOU) in Arkansas like Entergy and SWEPCO have their own generation plants, and those plants power your homes. When IOU-owned plants max out, the companies may purchase power from the wholesale market. That's about the only time Plum Point may have powered your home. And IOUs try to avoid buying from the wholesale market as much as possible because it costs them money.
Second, y'all like fiscal conservatism? How about energy conservatism? I live in a 1,450 square-feet home that uses on average 400 kWh of electricity each month. Last month, we used 172 kWh. In comparison, the average Arkansas household uses 1,100 kWh of electricity. I have all the amenities of a modern house but use less electricity because my house is energy efficient, and I use electricity wisely.
Stop sounding like Democrats who spend, spend, spend. Be energy conservative and save money!
I'll let Sen. Dismang take it from here:
http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article.as…
AI and Blue Friction,
We have 2,200MW of Combined Cycle Gas Turbine generated electricity capacity in Union County. Most of which is and has been sold on the spot market while the capacity has been underutilized since 2003. This was stated many times when the coal-fire generating plant in Southwest Arkansas started and proceeded despite failures to achieve regulatory approvals. All to build a coal-fired plant to send 95% of it's generated power capacity to Texas.
The same Texas that refused permissions to build the coal-fired plant for this electricity within their own borders.
Perry may be a dim bulb and Texans have repeatedly elected him, but at least Perry and his Texan majority don't dirty their own nest. They'll donate that and the couple of hundred jobs to Arkansas.
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