Check out this release from a partnership of energy and environmental research groups. In essence 57 proposed new traditional and “clean” coal power plants were officially cancelled, abandoned or shelved in 2007, not 46 as I reported last week. The reasons are primarily economic, based on the high cost of clean coal technology.
Included on the list is our favorite Iron Range boondoggle, Excelsior Energy’s $2.3 billion-plus Mesaba Energy Project. But make no mistake, the lobbyists and lawyers pushing this project do not consider their project dead. They’ll be back for more money and favors this legislative session and beyond.
It doesn’t help, rhetorically speaking, that one of the research groups involved in this release has the word “rainforest” in its name, but facts are indeed facts. No one is going to build a coal plant in this country until a comprehensive carbon policy is adopted, if then. IF coal is going to continue as a power source in the future, new plants will almost certainly involve carbon capture. The Excelsior plant is advertised as carbon capture, but it actually isn’t. It would be “sequestration ready” as its proponents like to say, which is like a dealer selling you a car that is “engine ready.” They’d be back at the trough again and again. All of this based on the premise that the project will be financed, built and function as planned — all of which is a long shot.
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