Failure of “clean coal” in The Guardian
March 2nd, 2018
Yes, we know it doesn’t work. Learned that in stopping the Mesaba Project:
There were IGCC – coal gasification – plants proposed all over the country, and they fell, one by one. Some not fast enough, the Kemper project, in today’s Guardian, is an example of protracted misrepresentations to keep that money coming in to fund the scam:
The best thing that came from the failed Mesaba Project was the information about the technology that hadn’t been disclosed before. We were able to use this information all over the country to stop these plants, and stop this one before Minnesotans were utterly and hopelessly screwed as they were in Mississippi with Southern’s Kemper and Indiana with Duke’s Edwardsport.
Here’s why it’s good the Mesaba Project was not built!
Who can forget that they proposed building a rail spur THROUGH Diamond Lake, or their notion that this project was built where there was existing infrastructure:
That photo of the existing infrastructure on a U.S. Dept. of Energy tour of the site says it all. Liars, scammers, and grifters extraordinaire.
And I’ve got to admit, there were some very entertaining times in that fight:
And ultimately, though the PUC denied the Power Purchase Agreement (as usual giving Xcel what it wants) they granted the site permit WITHOUT A PPA OR CERTIFICATE OF NEED!
And that site permit lingers, extended by the legislature again in Minn. Stat. 216B.1694:
Subd. 3.Staging and permitting.
(a) A natural gas-fired plant that is located on one site designated as an innovative energy project site under subdivision 1, clause (3), is accorded the regulatory incentives granted to an innovative energy project under subdivision 2, clauses (1) to (3), and may exercise the authorities therein.
(b) Following issuance of a final state or federal environmental impact statement for an innovative energy project that was a subject of contested case proceedings before an administrative law judge:
(1) site and route permits and water appropriation approvals for an innovative energy project must also be deemed valid for a plant meeting the requirements of paragraph (a) and shall remain valid until the later of (i) four years from the date the final required state or federal preconstruction permit is issued or (ii) June 30, 2025; and
(2) no air, water, or other permit issued by a state agency that is necessary for constructing an innovative energy project may be the subject of contested case hearings, notwithstanding Minnesota Rules, parts 7000.1750 to 7000.2200.
June 30, 2025?!?!?! … sigh… It’s not completely dead yet, and that permit could be used to stick a large natural gas plant in the woods near Taconite.
Given the history of the Mesaba Project, and the Grifter in Chief’s repeated comments on “clean coal,” we need to remember this expose of coal gasification across the country a decade ago, and the disasters of the two projects that did go forward, and the truth — REAL NEWS — there is no such thing as “clean coal.”
We know tRump doesn’t know what he’s talking about, generally and specifically, but this is another reminder of the danger of his bloviating. The good news is that his misguided pontifications can’t over-ride the technological and economic disaster of coal gasification.
Thanks to the Guardian for keeping on this. We don’t need more hearings in -20 weather in an unheated gym.
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