Coal News 2006
Xcel Goes Green in Minnesota
(Minneapolis Star-Tribune, November 3, 2006 )
Xcel Energy Inc. is planning to turn to wind and water to head off a forecast shortfall of electricity. The utility plans to get enough additional energy to power 375,000 homes from the projects, which would begin operating in 2015.
Merchant of Menace: How "merchant coal" is changing the face of America.
(Grist, August 24, 2006)
Some of the 153 new coal plants propsed for Developers like LS Power and Peabody, are proposing speculative "merchant" coal plants, which ultimately intend to sell the power -- or even the plant itself -- to the highest bidder. Local need for power is not part of the calculations behind these merchant plants. The concept isn't new, but the voracious expansion plans are.
Xcel faces fight on rate hike
(Denver Post August 21, 2006)
Xcel's $216 million rate hike opposed by the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel.
Xcel proposes new coal plant for northeastern Colorado (Rocky Mountain News, August 2006) The plant will be a demonstration for "clean" coal gasification technology at high altitudes.
US Coal "rush" in the making.
(Environment Colorado, August 2006)
Over 150 Proposed Plants Would Boost Global Warming Pollution by 10 Percent, Coal Consumption by 30 Percent.
Coal
in a Nice Shade of Green: (New York Times, March 25, 2005)
Op-ed piece arguing for coal gasification as a bridge technology to renewables.
EPA Mercury Ruling Tainted by Politics (Washington
Post, Feb 6, 2005) The Environmental Protection Agency ignored scientific
evidence and agency protocols in order to set limits on mercury pollution
that would line up with the Bush administration's free-market approaches
to power plant pollution, according to a report released yesterday by
the agency's inspector general.
