An Ignoble Experiment

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First cousins U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-NM) and Mark Udall (D-CO) are continuing their push for legislation to set a threshold for renewable electricity production, introducing a bill to establish a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) to create jobs, reduce pollution and save consumers money. By requiring utilities to generate 25 percent of their power from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2025, the bill would encourage the growth of U.S. renewable energy to reduce dependence on foreign fossil fuels, hold down utility rates and boost private investments in state economies.

Senator Mark Udall

The Udalls first introduced a similar initiative in 2002, winning passage of an RES amendment in 2007.

"The global clean energy race is increasingly competitive, and our bill is the best way to help America take the lead and build a thriving clean energy economy," Tom Udall said in a statement. "A national RES will get America running on homegrown clean energy, create almost 300,000 new jobs and help revitalize our rural communities - all while fighting global warming. I've long fought for a 'do it all, do it right' energy strategy, and a national RES is a critical part of maximizing our country's energy potential."

The Senators' legislation would create the first national threshold for utilities to provide a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable resources, including wind, solar, biomass and hydrokinetic energy. The bill would set a 6 percent requirement by 2014, followed by gradual increases thereafter to meet the 25 percent by 2025 goal.

The Udalls back their proposed bill with research, citing studies that show a national RES would create nearly 300,000 additional jobs (more than 50 percent in the manufacturing sector) and save consumers almost $100 billion on their utility bills by 2030. Further, they say the bill would give $13.5 billion to farmers, ranchers and other landowners in the form of lease payments, creating new economic activity in rural communities across the United States. Add to that $11.5 billion in new local tax revenues.

Senator Tom Udall

Suppliers can meet the federal requirements by purchasing credits from other entities that have obtained credits by producing renewable energy. The RES also allows utilities to bank credits for four years and to borrow credits from up to three years in the future. Municipal and other publicly owned power plants and rural electric co-ops would be exempt from the requirements.

The renewable energy industry is embracing the bill.

"Removing market barriers and providing a competitive structure that allows the nation to recognize solar energy's full potential is a top priority for America's solar industry. We've already seen what well-structured renewable energy standards have meant in states," said Christopher Mansour, vice president of federal affairs, Solar Energy Industries Association. "They've opened electricity markets to allow for more competition from renewable sources of energy and ultimately driven down the cost of electricity for consumers. This success can be replicated at the national level."

Including New Mexico and Colorado, a total of 29 states and the District of Columbia, representing over half of the U.S. electricity market, already have renewable generation standards with various timelines and targets. This legislation does not pre-empt states that have stronger standards.

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2. Is EIA guilty of reporting incorrect coal reserves?

By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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3. NY Attorney General faults NRC for relying on "unsubstantiated hope"

The Boulder, Colorado-based nonprofit Clean Energy Action (CEA) has released a bombshell new report which contends that U.S. coal reserves have been inaccurately reported. The CEA says that America does not have 200 years in coal "reserves" since much of the coal that is now left in the ground cannot be mined profitably.

Credit: Chris J. Dixon/Wikimedia Commons

The CEA analysis shows that, in 2008, the U.S. appears to have reached its "peak coal" point and faces a rocky future over the next 10-20 years of rising coal production costs, potentially more bankruptcies among coal mining companies, and higher fuel bills for utility consumers.

"The belief that the U.S. has a '200 year' supply of coal is based on the faulty reporting by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of U.S. coal deposits as 'reserves.' Most U.S. coal is buried too deeply to be mined at a profit and should not be categorized as reserves, but rather as 'resources,'" the report says. "…decision makers at all levels should begin taking a hard look at coal cost and supply issues considering both geology and finance and begin thinking about scenarios that require moving the U.S. beyond coal in significantly less than 20 years. In short, the EIA's reporting of over 200 billion tons of 'Estimated Recoverable Reserves' for U.S .coal supplies has been like a 'faulty fuel gauge' for US coal estimates."

The cost of coal used by electric utilities has been rising in almost all states at a rate of 6 to 10 percent per year -- or two to three times faster than inflation -- over the last decade, according to the report.

"Economically viable coal is a nonrenewable resource, and after examining currently available geological and financial data, there is good reason to believe we are rapidly reaching the end of US coal deposits that can be mined at a profit," Leslie Glustrom, director of research and policy, Clean Energy Action said. "If coal can't be mined at a profit, not much of it will be mined. It is unclear how long the U.S. coal industry will produce large quantities of coal and at what price, but the current financial distress of U.S. coal mining companies could lead to significant changes in US coal production in less than a decade."

Ultimately, as the country goes through a transition in its electric energy mix, a more diversified set of suppliers for the nation's electricity will emerge with coal's relative monopoly (at fifty percent of market share) likely being replaced by growth in renewable resources, efficiency, natural gas and, in some regions of the country, hydro. As a result, the coal industry will be smaller with less producers, fewer mines and higher prices.

The future of the U.S. coal industry is unclear, but there could be significant disruptions in the next five to 10 years as several top U.S .coal companies have lost over 80 percent of their stock value and are facing debt payments in the next three to seven years that already have interest costs of 6 percent and above.

For more:
- see this report

By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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4. ACSD showcases CHP technology

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman is calling upon the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to strengthen its proposed assessment of the environmental, public health and safety risks of storing highly radioactive nuclear wastes on-site at more than 100 reactors around the country for 60 or more years after the reactors are closed. The Attorney General's testimony was delivered by Assistant Attorneys General Janice Dean at a public meeting held by the NRC on the proposed Waste Confidence Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS).

Indian Point. Credit: Daniel Case/Wikimedia Commons

The DGEIS was prepared by the NRC in response to Attorney General Schneiderman's successful court challenge to the commission's Temporary Storage Rule in which the NRC had found, without conducting necessary studies, that no significant safety or environmental impacts will result from long-term, on-site storage of radioactive waste at nuclear power plants. In 2012, a federal circuit court agreed with Attorney General Schneiderman that federal law requires the NRC to complete a thorough analysis of the public health, safety and environmental hazards such storage would pose before allowing the long-term storage of nuclear waste in communities. In reaching its decision, the court found that the spent nuclear fuel stored on-site at nuclear power plants "poses a dangerous, long-term health and environmental risk."

In his court challenge to the NRC's Temporary Storage Rule, the Attorney General argued that full compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act requires the commission to conduct a rigorous analysis of the potential for environmental, health and safety impacts from long-term, on-site radioactive waste storage. An analysis of this type, if conducted thoroughly and objectively, would identify any environmental, health and safety risks related to long-term, onsite storage of radioactive waste at each site, as well as those mitigation measures (such as increased groundwater monitoring, transfer of spent fuel from pools to dry storage casks, or repair of leaking spent fuel pools) needed to fully address them.

However, in his most recent testimony, Attorney General Schneiderman calls the NRC's DGEIS "significantly flawed," noting that, while it recognizes that spent fuel pools are susceptible to fires and a fire would have severe consequences comparable to a severe nuclear accident, the assessment treats the consequences of such an accident generically and uses two nuclear power plants located in rural or low-population areas as its basis. Schneiderman argues that a generic review of a spent fuel pool accident risk, as performed by the NRC for the DGEIS, at the Indian Point facility is inappropriate given that the consequences of such an accident in the densely populated areas that surround the facility would be substantially greater than in rural or less populated areas.

The Attorney General also faults the NRC for assuming, with no factual basis, that all nuclear waste will be removed from the nation's nuclear power plants by 60 years after the plants are closed. He notes that, currently, there is no available off-site location to store high-level nuclear waste from those facilities. The DGEIS, he says, fails to meet the requirements of the circuit court's ruling by making decisions based on an "unsubstantiated hope" that sufficient, licensed, off-site radioactive waste storage capacity will be available to accept nuclear plant waste within 60 years.

For more:
- read the testimony

By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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5. Empire seeks to implement DSM portfolio

The Albany County Sewer District (ACSD) is showcasing a multi-stage combined heat and power (CHP) system that will save the county an estimated $400,000 per year. CHP is technology that can help utilities reduce grid demand.

This $8.6 million heat-to-energy technology was made possible through a $2 million award from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and an additional $5.8 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding provided through the New York State Environmental Facilities Corp. The system recaptures heat generated through the burning of dewatered and evaporated sludge. The plant has always burned sludge for disposal, but this is the first time the heat has been recaptured for increased efficiency.

The district will generate up to 3.3 million kilowatt-hours of power annually using the technology, reducing the county's energy costs by an estimated $400,000 per year. Heat from this process will be captured and used for building heat during colder months.

The North Plant, where the CHP is installed, was built 40 years ago and disposes of 7,000 dry tons of sewage sludge annually. The path to clean energy begins with the dewatering of the sludge, followed by evaporation of remaining water, creating a dry sludge that becomes flammable. Up until commissioning of this project, the incineration process hadn't captured the waste heat from combustion of the sewage sludge.

With this project, the heat now runs through a closed-loop oil system, which captures heat and pumps it to the CHP system. With this system, this plant has the ability to reduce up to 75 percent of its consumption from the electric grid.

For more:
- see this report

Read more about: combined heat and power
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By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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