By Tom Wolf
Executive Director, Energy Council Illinois Chamber of Commerce
There’s a great scene in the 1983 movie classic Mr. Mom where Michael Keaton’s character is dropping off the kids at school and they’re yelling at him, “Dad! You’re doing it wrong!” Keaton doesn’t listen and gets chastised by the volunteer Mom who simply deadpans “You’re doing it wrong.”
It’s no surprise that movie memory comes to my mind when it comes to the Obama Administration’s attempt to regulate the future world of energy – specifically coal generation. In my mind they are simply doing it wrong. I think this for many reasons, including:
· Arbitrarily moving the goal posts. The most recent regulations from the US EPA on allowable greenhouse gas emissions from future generation sets a limit which most natural gas generators can accommodate -- but that coal generation cannot. Is there any science in this limit? Isn’t it a bit strange that this magic limit saves the planet and just so happens to allow natural gas gene...
There’s a great scene in the 1983 movie classic Mr. Mom where Michael Keaton’s character is dropping off the kids at school and they’re yelling at him, “Dad! You’re doing it wrong!” Keaton doesn’t listen and gets chastised by the volunteer Mom who simply deadpans “You’re doing it wrong.”
It’s no surprise that movie memory comes to my mind when it comes to the Obama Administration’s attempt to regulate the future world of energy – specifically coal generation. In my mind they are simply doing it wrong. I think this for many reasons, including:
·Arbitrarily moving the goal posts. The most recent regulations from the US EPA on allowable greenhouse gas emissions from future generation sets a limit which most natural gas generators can accommodate -- but that coal generation cannot. Is there any science in this limit? Isn’t it a bit strange that this magic limit saves the planet and just so happens to allow natural gas generation but not coal generation? I’m skeptical.
·All of the above means all of the above, not some of the above. Diversity in our energy portfolio is good goal and we certainly have many options we couldn’t have dreamed of in past generations. However, it seems as though we’re going to have to rely on everything but coal in our future baseload generation since it’s hard to imagine anyone willing to invest in a power source that will be out of compliance before the first kilowatt is generated. We have 25% of the world’s coal reserves. Isn’t it worth trying a bit harder to make it part of the future energy mix?
·Giving them time, but no hope for money. There is a provision in the EPA regulations for coal companies to average their GHG emissions over 30 years, theoretically allowing them to build a new plant and retrofit it with sequestration technology when (and if) it becomes available and economical. This is bogus. What company will be able to get financing for a new plant that is built on the hope that new technology will be available and affordable at some point in the future? Investors account for risk, but they are not foolish.
·The US should be inventing new energy solutions, but why not new coal energy solutions? The Administration has bent over backwards telling us that the new alternative energy technologies should be invented here in America. Fantastic! Meanwhile, the world is investing in coal power and clean coal technology, while U.S. ingenuity is being squashed by its own government. I guess we’re being told that it’s OK if China owns the patents for future cleaner coal inventions.
It’s a bit ironic that Obama hails from coal-rich Illinois and yet his EPA seems hell bent on threatening the very existence of new coal plants. Illinois has a lot invested in jobs and economic development in coal production and generation and could benefit from new coal development in the coming years and decades.
So is this Administration trying to kill coal? In the past they have implied that it’s a friend of coal, but with friends like these who needs enemies! If the Administration is truly trying to keep coal a viable option for future generations, they are certainly “doing it wrong.”
Michael Keaton’s character in Mr. Mom does eventually pull it together and finds ways to do things right while staying true to himself. I believe the Obama Administration can do the same thing but fear we will discover once again that life in Washington doesn’t have Hollywood endings.