SF Chron, NYTimes (Greenwire): New powerplant must live with greenhouse cap. Coal? Nope.
When one reads in the Energy&Environment Daily Greenwire service, via the NYTimes, that a new US power plant is the first to be licensed with a greenhouse gas limit upon it, one might guess it’s news only because it is a coal plant or something as significant as that. The first clue to a no on that is that it is in California, where PUC regs make just about any kind of coal taboo. The second is to read it and learn it is a natural gas-fired plant in the city of Hayward, along SF Bay’s east side. Big whoop.
In the Times, Greenwire‘s Robin Bravender and Colin Sullivan, in the second graf, note that it is a gas-fired plant and add in the next graf that it will produce half the CO2 per megawatt-hour as the most advanced coal-fired plants. Well good, and also : of course. It’s less but for reasons not well addressed in this piece. After all, natural gas is mostly methane or CH4; coal is essentially CCCC ad infinitum. That’s a lot more C’s to be combusted per kilowatt. Nowhere in here does it say whether the federal caps that the local smog board says it must meet require any more than is provided by any other new, natural gas plant and California is getting some of those already. The press release from the Calpine company (in Grist below) does say that it should undercut state requirements on carbon emissions by 25 percent – but not how other gas plants perform, especially those already using modern, combined-cycle systems. In any case, this looks like feel-good news that does not come close to the sorts of carbon reductions most scientists say must begin soon. Reporters are not expected to produce a primer on combustion engineering. They should however provide a hint that this plant will be a relatively small departure from business as usual.
Other stories:
- The Hill E² blog – Jim Snyder: Who needs Congress? California regulator limits carbon emissions ; Again, this news is somewhat significant, but it only takes care of what some would call a piece of low hanging fruit. That seems part of the news, too.
- SF Chronicle (blog) : Hayward, California will get first plant with Greenhouse Gas limit ;
Grist for the Mill: Calpine Press Release ;
- Charlie Petit
