June 19, 2009

Global warming's disastrous affects loom, says the United Nations. But fixing it remains elusive and expensive, it acknowledges. To do so, the industrialized world must lead by example and help fund efforts taken by poorer countries.

It appears, however, that aggressive and mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions tied to global warming are unrealistic in the short term. Instead, the international community is likely to gravitate toward a gradual and flexible approach -- one that permits the lesser developed regions to grow their economies while they also take steps to reduce emissions. But as new pollution-cutting technologies are commercialized, the policies will become more ambitious.

June 03, 2009

The spillage of 5 million cubic yards of coal ash is testing the Tennessee Valley Authority like never before. Its immediate response and ultimate resolution will determine just how its neighbors and its wholesale customers interact with the nation's largest provider of electricity.

The prescription for remedying any disaster is to demonstrate empathy and to communicate those concerns from those at the top of the organization. Companies may wrestle with whether to limit their legal liabilities or to respond to the public interest. But working to ensure the safety and well-being of neighbors and customers is always the correct response. The stakeholders, in turn, will likely respond in kind. The goal of entities in the hot seat is to generate more goodwill than legal ramifications.

May 29, 2009

Political science teaches compromise as art form. And nowhere is that tenet clearer than with the carbon constraint bill now debated by Congress.

It's one thing to have principles. It's another to pass legislation representative of those ideas -- especially in a body comprised of 536 strong-willed individuals. With control of the White House and a majority in both chambers, the Democrats undoubtedly rule. But the party is certainly not homogeneous as its members represent varied interests throughout geographically diverse areas. As such, they rally behind their leaders only after they serve their constituents.

May 18, 2009

Congress is moving steadily toward carbon constraints. Such emissions are likely to be controlled through a free market system in which carbon credits are traded. In such a world, some utility researchers are saying that a place exists for both new coal generation and older units that can be economically retrofitted to better the environment.

While the older coal-fired plants pale when compared to modern power facilities, the aging plants won't likely be retired anytime soon. Utilities with those plants say that they need the capacity. They also reason that it is cheaper to retrofit them with pollution controls than to replace them altogether -- improvements that can involve either the use of newer supercritical coal units or pending but ultra-clean coal-gasification plants.

May 15, 2009 
 
Wide-scale deployment is at least five years away. But the architects behind the first-ever power plant to attempt to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will fire up a pilot project in September in a test that could last up to three years.

If the 20-megawatt trial at the Mountaineer Plant in New Haven, W.V., is deemed successful, then American Electric Power (AEP) will implement the same technology in 2011 at another facility in Oklahoma in a 200-megawatt project. After that and around 2015, AEP says that the operations that will use chilled ammonia to scrub the CO2 emissions can be ready for prime time. Those releases would then be compressed and stored permanently underground or be used to help retrieve oil deposits.