By Gordon Tomb – February 8, 2022
Visible from Western Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountain ridges are coal-fired power plants—and their plumes of water vapor—that have been integral to much of the regional economy for 50 years. But maybe not for much longer.
Three plants east of Pittsburgh directly employ 550 people and support an estimated 8,100 jobs, according to Power PA Jobs Alliance, a coalition of labor and industry groups. Now, two of them—the generating stations of Conemaugh on the Indiana-Westmoreland County border and Keystone in eastern Armstrong County—are slated to close by 2028.
The owners blame costs imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s wastewater rule. The regulation is expected to lead at least 26 plants in 14 states to stop using coal, according to news reports. Another factor is Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s unilateral decision to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
“These plants have sunk billions of dollars into environmental projects,” said Ken Umholtz, a Conemaugh employee commenting on the EPA’s concern about water quality. “We no sooner finish one thing, and it’s something else.”
Though the Conemaugh plant recycles most of its water, Umholtz said, “Environmentalists … plan to regulate us out of business, but they are not going to have electricity because there is nothing to replace us.”
Conemaugh and Keystone each generate 1,800 megawatts of electricity. A third coal-fired plant at Homer City produces 2,000 megawatts and, so far, plans to continue operating. The three together can power more than 5 million homes.
“The only readily available energy source to make this much electricity is coal,” said Allen Goldberg, chief operating officer for General Trade Corp., a contractor that manages materials trucked to the plant, including some of the millions of tons of coal.
“There are basic laws of physics that apply to everything in life,” said Goldberg. “One of them is that you can’t just shut down something like this without replacing it.” He added that the area lacks pipeline infrastructure to supply natural gas as an alternative fuel for the plant.
Allan Manning unloads rail cars, which transport the bulk of the plant’s coal. At age 35, he hopes to finish his working life at Conemaugh, but wonders if that will be possible.
“Three generations of my family have been raised with the help of these plants,” said Manning, whose grandfather, father, and uncle worked as tradesmen in operating, maintaining, or building power plants. “My wife and I have raised two daughters—ages 8 and 6—with her being able to stay at home with them. We could not have done that without the salary I make at the plant. There are thousands who depend on these plants for a living.”
According to Manning, plant closings could diminish the local tax base, and directors of the local school board “think they would have to lay off teachers.”
Most plant employees are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 459—a union based in nearby Johnstown. Aric Baker, a Local 459 senior business representative, wishes his parent union was more vocal about regulations threatening the plants. However, he said, the IBEW hierarchy has “to dance around” the politics of having members employed at competing nuclear plants.
“It’s very frustrating because so much of Local 459’s membership is tied to fossil fuels,” said Baker, who is also an air-emissions technician at Keystone. Of the local’s 2,000 members, nearly 40% work at coal plants or on power lines.
The cost of the EPA’s rule would not be as large of a concern for the plants if it weren’t for the threat of Wolf’s insistence on joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative this year, Baker said. That initiative amounts to a carbon tax that would increase the cost of the plants’ electricity and make it less competitive. Wolf has vetoed a legislative resolution to prevent the state from joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and has sued in Commonwealth Court to force the tax into immediate effect.
Pennsylvania is the top exporter of electricity among states, a rare instance of economic leadership for the state. Chasing out power producers with punitive taxes and regulations only feeds poor economic rankings in other areas. Pennsylvania has the nation’s 15th-highest unemployment rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and ranks 44th on Multistate’s Open-for-Business Index.
“It doesn’t make sense to shut down prematurely coal plants that provide the security of on-site fuel storage and an alternative when prices of natural gas and other sources spike or when other resources are unavailable,” said Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of America’s Power, an industry trade group.
Coal plants, Bloodworth said, were among the most reliable energy sources during a massive Texas power outage last February. According to a federal report, coal-fired plants accounted for less than 6% of the outages while natural gas and wind plants accounted for 58% and 27%, respectively.
“If these plants are shuttered, there will be blackouts,” said Baker. “I bought a home generator two years ago, and I’m no tin-foil-hat doomsdayer. I just know the reality of the situation.”
Gordon Tomb is a senior advisor with the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, Va.
This commentary was first published February 8, 2022 at The Daily Signal.
Mywife and I have raised two daughters—ages 8 and 6—with her being able to stay at home with them. We could not have done that without the salary I make at the plant. There are thousands who depend on these plants for a living.”
Obviously he has no compassion for environmentalist who depend on destroying his livelyhood for theirs
Correction – environmentalist who has no idea of the realities of life on earth.
Those who understand will have a generator ready. Then, bring on the rolling blackouts. Show the stupid what they wish.
Something about letting a child burn his fingers on the stove….
Except these people won’t learn.
The odds are, the ones who will be causing the rolling blackouts will not be affected by them.
Presumably their Backup Generator’s fuel will need to be Solar &/or Small Wind.
not likely
Most have no place to put such a contraction and could not afford one anyway.
Those who have the necessities often install their own generators and fuel supplies even thought they often bill themselves as deep green.
I didn’t notice the political affiliation of the governor but, I can guess. It doesn’t really matter because the typical political thought process is Fire, Aim, Ready.
Wolf’s a ‘D’. Not sure, but the article suggests that he is trying to enter RGGI over the PA legislature’s opposition. Compare that situation with VA, where new governor Youngkin, an ‘R’, is trying to exit RGGI over the VA legislature’s opposition.
Empty plans. Wait until they try to figure out how to provide the same energy with wind and solar and see how they change their tune. Many talk a good “decarbonization” but none can walk it.
To many it doesn’t seem to matter if there is no alternative although perhaps that is just their determined blindness to reality.
We drove past the 6 mountaintop windmills just southeast of Pittsburgh on this past Saturday. Only 3 were turning. At that rate, the blackouts are coming and soon.
“Wait until they try to figure out how to provide the same energy with wind and solar and see how they change their tune.”
The only problem with ‘let them see how unworkable their plans are’ is that by the time that’s clearly evident, the plants will have been shut down. Once the plants are dismantled it will take years to replace them.
More global warming… minus 91F wind chill
“WEAK” SOLAR STORM SENDS 40 STARLINK SATELLITES PLUNGING TO EARTH; DEEP SNOW IS FORCING BISON ONTO ALASKAN HIGHWAYS, WITH A FEELS-LIKE OF -91F SUFFERED IN HOWARD PASS; + USA’S COLDEST JANUARY IN 8 YEARS
February 10, 2022 Cap Allon
Earth is losing its protective shield against energy from space, and nobody is telling you…
These things ‘ebb and flow’; For instance, the electron flux was quite above normal the last few days …
The newly launched satellites were not positioned at their final higher orbits.
They were still in a lower orbit waiting for final checkout and deployment.
The rest of the “fleet” which was already provisioned was not affected.
You need to address Allan on that. I was addressing just that one specific point in my post.
Why can’t you sell warmed water?
A farmers grow crops when soil is warm enough. If could buy lots of warmed water
it seems they want it.
At Drax in Yorkshire in the UK, in the 1980s when it was coal fired, they sold their hot water to Rank Hovis McDougal who used it to heat greenhouses growing tomatoes next door, so yes your idea can & has been done.
It would seem that co-location with a commercial ‘garden’ facility that produced tropical consumables at some stage in mankind’s existence would be a ‘thing’ …
water from the coal plants cooling system?
It is common to discover a limit by exceeding it. This might get your face slapped in High School, or a bad muscle strain, or having your credit card suspended. But in the real world in the middle of winter, freezing in the dark will not be a minor nuisance. It sure looks like the Greenie Crowd wants to find out the hard way. Yes, I have a stand-by home electricity generator.
Presumably your Backup Generator’s fuel will need to be Solar &/or Small Wind?
A problem with the greenies is that their answer to rolling blackouts is more wind and solar generation. Forgetting that the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun goes down at night. Doh!
Just be sure and pave over Happy Valley with renewable energy projects.
I love photos of REAL power plants- they look POWERFUL like cathedrals – unlike wimpy solar panels and bird thrashers. Of course climatistas always show real power plants with dark, evil looking smoke rising from the smokestacks- created on Photoshop- instead of the mostly white steam you see in the above photo. I know what a truly filthy smokestack looks like as I grew up close to a paper factory in western Mass. which must have been burning diesel or coal- not sure- in the ’50s and ’60s. The smoke really was pitch black.
The steam is rising from cooling towers. The stacks are clear.
Even then, technically, steam is invisible; what’s being seen, of course, is water vapor condensing out of the steam or evolving from the surface of water (water spray perhaps) coming out of the ‘cooling’ tower …
Counter-flow cooling tower and its operation:
https://youtu.be/kASLz29cU1g?t=62
‘Normal operation’ says about 2% of the water is evaporated …
I had this argument with the BBC.
The BBC show backlit photos of steam and claim CO2 is gonna fry us all
Their excuse is they have no control over photographs sourced outside the BEEB
Notice their shape, called a “hyperboloid”, done for engineering reasons, maximizing the efficiency of the cooling process, and other reasons, such as the base being wider for structural integrity.
~1972 I had the privilege of touring Ontario Hydro’s new coal-fired generating station at Nanticoke on the north shore of Lake Erie. It imported hard anthracite coal from Pennsylvania across the Lake.
Two generators had been built and 6 more were abuilding beside them. We toured the control room, etc and ended on the roof of the plant able to look
– across the Lake to Pennsylvania
– north to an open square mile of land
– up to the chimney whence our guide told us the exhaust gasses left at 60mph and 260F, having had 96% of the flyash removed to dump on the open land to north.
“If you can find a use for flyash, you can have it free!” (Have often wondered if anyone did use it or is it still piled there?)
I asked what else was in the gasses. He replied, SOx & NOx which were discovered by 1980 to be causing acid rain with its downwind problems across the developped world.
Nanticoke fairly quickly installed scrubbers to remove SOx & NOx. They hadn’t yet gotten to scrubbing Hg from the gasses when CAGW became the dominant religion of our politicians.
There was even a plan to lay a large under Lake Erie cable to export cleaner Nanticoke electricity to Pennsylvania and close dirtier American coal generators during temperature inversion smogs to help everyone along the Great Lakes. Jacques Cousteau came and photographed the bottom, finding scrapes on the bottom from earlier winter ice buildups. (He also discovered a previously unknown ancient fault line running directly under Pickering Nuclear plant on Lake Ontario.)
Nanticoke was the largest, cleanest & most responsible coal generator in North America when the then-governing Liberal Party closed it ~2008(?).
Now we rely on Nuclear to provide 60% of our electricity until Pickering is fully retired in 2025 creating a 15% hole in Ontario generation.
The current plan? To lay an under Lake Erie cable to supposedly sell ‘clean Nuclear’ electricity to Pennsylvania, but really to Import Coal electricity to cover Ontario’s new shortfall. Plus ça change, eh!
Where I used to live fly ash was used to stabilize the clay under the pavement of highways and parking lots. Bottom ash another byproduct was a granular glassy looking substance without much use.
Bottom ash is ground and used as a component in asphaltic concrete and cinder block. The hint for the latter being the word, “cinder”.
Ahhhhh … The Lake Erie Connector project, a proposed 117km underwater electricity transmission line that would deliver 1,000 MW of power bi-directionally between Ontario and the largest electrical market in the world – 13 U.S. Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic states.
https://www.itclakeerieconnector.com/
Project Status:The Lake Erie Connector project is fully permitted in Canada and the United States. Remaining key milestones include completing project cost refinements and securing favorable transmission service agreements with prospective counterparties. Upon completion of these steps, we expect to begin construction in 2021 or 2022.
Addendum:
Q: How does power currently flow between the Ontario IESO and PJM energy markets?
A: The energy currently must flow across limited existing interties and through other markets such as Michigan or New York to travel around Lake Erie. Some entities do schedule power in this way, but it is inefficient and costly. The Lake Erie Connector will provide a new, direct, and efficient trading route between the two markets and will benefit both regions.
BTW, this is a HVDC cable project.
Excess electric power from the wind and solar farms in Southwestern Ontario is sent to the US and they are paid to take it if the price at the time is negative. The grid operator is forced to take “renewable” energy and they gave to get rid of it at times, paying the grid operator across the lake to absorb it. It is hard to imagine a dumber arrangement.
Ontario gave the go-ahead for a 4th generation nuclear reactor program to start building their first operational product – that was in 2021. The plan is to ramp up gas fired electricity to cover the gap as Pickering is decommissioned. Darlington will be expanded.
Wind turbine vendors are quietly funding an NGO in Ontario determined to block all gas pipelines so the expansion of gas cannot happen. They successfully blocked a new one crossing at Niagara.
There are a lot of fingers poking a lot of pies but one thing is sure, the price of electricity will rise and rise.
re: “Excess electric power from …”
Do you remember the Northeast blackout of 2000?
Do you remember the circuitous route that power took around Lk Erie on the east and west ends? Pepperidge Farms remembers … and this ‘connector’ project, AKA DC tie line is meant to alleviate (partially) that circuitous combination of paths.
Those ‘paths’, routes, exist on account of the something called ‘economic dispatch’ in the power industry. Economic dispatch is really no more than ‘shopping’ around for the lowest cost power producer on the grid at the time given the constraints of the bulk power transmission capability (as in: there are limits to power flow on any given link or tie line). One can visit the website I linked above and get a little more detail like this.
John Q. Public AKA Dunning Kruger en masse make _so_ many assumptions when they see a project announcement like this, when, in fact, there unseen, ‘unweighed’, factors that economically drive these projects.
If you REALLY want to take a deep dive on where the power generation market is headed, it will take more than a few paragraphs to do so, and certainly, even then, we won’t necessarily be ‘on the track’ that technology eventually takes us (straight-line extrapolation being fraught with errors as it is) going forward.
Fly ash is used in Europe to make thermally insulating blocks for building. They are light, strong enough for walls and inexpensive. Good recycling!
Fly ash can be added (and is) to concrete because it has pozzolanic properties. It makes a stronger concrete and is sometimes in the specifications for certain applications, like highways.
Here in Alberta the Left leaning government that was in power during the last election cycle decided to remove ALL of the coal used for 68% of our power production. All of these “Clean Coal” plants were switched to natural gas. A commodity that is used to heat 90% of the homes and businesses in this province. Until the early 1950’s all homes either used coal, fuel oil or wood for heat in the long cold winters here.
Even though these coal fired power plants are sitting on an “unlimited” supply of coal deposits this decision was made to reduce the carbon output of these plants by .3% for the power output. Coal is found almost everywhere in Alberta by digging down to around 200 feet.
These plants also LOST 3% to 8% of their power output because of the loss of thermal density by switching to natural gas. The boilers were designed to burn coal as their main source not gas. There is also a job loss of the mine personnel and all of the maintenance workers related to the coal mining and processing facilities up to 350 personnel at each of the 8 power plants.
As consumers here our power bills have doubled in price and now that we are all in for natural gas our home heating costs have doubled as well. This is also a bad idea as the present federal government under Justin Trudeau is doing everything in their power to remove fossil fuels from the table as fast as they can by limiting drilling and projects to replace the depleting natural gas supplies from the market place.
I am looking at alternatives for back up heat because the way things are going rationing of natural gas or driving the price up to a point that you can not afford to heat with it. These same environmentalists are starting to ban fossil fueled furnaces, Wood stoves and other sources of heat through punitive regulations and laws. If you do not protect your right to heating your house in the winter it maybe gone before you know it. .
The “Climate” won’t notice nor care.
France going Nuclear PLUS
France is to build up to 14 new nuclear reactors by 2050, says Macron.
While in the UK electricity prices going up by 40% +, France has limited rise to only 4% for next 12 months.
Vive la France! Vive la liberté!
Vuk: I doubt that. Do you have a reference?
According to the latest information I’ve seen, there is just one nuclear plant under construction in France — the 1.6 GW Flamanville unit 3 — slated for operation in 2023, and none shown as “in planning”. Construction on the Flamanville unit started in December 2007, so if it goes into operation as scheduled it will have taken more than 15 years to complete. At that pace, if he wants to have “up to 14” new plants by 2050, Macron needs to have the final one started by 2035. In fact, if he began one new reactor every year starting next year, there would be 13 completed by 2050.
So Macron’s statement, unless it is contained in a bill to actually fund new plants that becomes law, is political wish-speak. Even so, and assuming one new reactor started every year, there would be quite a few years with 10 under construction at the same time. I doubt the French industry or economy could sustain that. China currently has 20 under construction and the US just two.
2017 GDP for US was $19.486 trillion (10^12); China was $12.238 trillion and France was $2.583 trillion. China’s is certainly much larger today; France probably under 3% YOY GDP growth.
Unless France can bring reactor construction time down drastically below 15 years, or obtain most of the financing abroad, I don’t see how they can support a nuclear construction program on that scale.
Whom to believe?
Macron Pledges New Nuclear Reactors – if He’s Re-Elected
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-10/macron-pledges-new-nuclear-reactors-if-he-s-re-elected
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
EDF has already stated that it would like to construct six more EPR reactors in France. The group was due to submit a report to the French President in mid-2021, who was then to decide on the construction of the reactors. During a trip to Framatome’s Le Creusot plant in December 2020, Macron said the final decision to build new reactors must be taken no later than 2023, when the Flamanville EPR will be in service.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Macron-says-France-will-construct-new-reactors
_Jim:
Thanks for the details. Macron’s statement is a campaign promise, so it has the same credibility as Obama’s pledge that “if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor”.
The Flamanville-3 reactor, like the two new Vogtle reactors in Georgia has experienced multiple delays and the cost has ballooned to 12.7 billion euros. I believe it is the first EPR (European Pressurized Reactor — a combined French and German design) to be built.
Macron had previously opposed nuclear power, forcing the closure of two reactors after just 40 years of operation.
France currently has 56 operating pressurized water reactors, totaling 61,370 MW capacity. The average build time for all of them is 7.2 years, but looking at just the ones put in service this century, there are 4 with an average build time of 14.3 years.
Aside from China, the only country with a significant number of reactors under construction is India with 10. Most are 630 MW IPHWR-700 reactors (gen 3 pressurized heavy water designs derived from CANDU), and four others are 917 MW VVER-1000 units (Russian light water design). The oldest of those under construction was started in 2010 and I don’t see a projected completion date for any of them, although the newest reactor Krakapar-3 (IPHWR-700) took 11 years from start of construction to operational status.
The initial Macron plan is to complete six large reactors by 2050 with the first coming on line in 2035. Presumably if they all use the same EPR design the construction time can come down to something closer to the the most recent Indian reactor, but the article does not say how long the initial planning and permitting process take before construction can even start. To give you an idea, Georgia Power applied for the ESP (Early Site Permit) to build Vogtle 3 & 4 reactors in 2006. In 2008 they applied for the COL (Construction and Operating License), which was approved in 2012. Litigation ensued which was dismissed in July of that year. Actual construction started in March 2013. With a bunch of delays, overruns, and the Westinghouse bankruptcy thrown in, Unit 3 is now projected to be online third quarter this year and Unit 4 six months later. If that schedule holds, it will be 16+ years for the whole process, and accrued construction loan interest with no revenue for 9+ years.
Unless EDF can do considerably better than Georgia Power, I think it is optimistic to claim a new reactor will be operational by 2035 if they start the whole process next year.
The other item mentioned is extending current operating licenses beyond 50 years. France currently has 17 reactors totaling 15,350 MW which have been operating 40 or more years and 52 reactors totaling 52,740 MW have been operating 30 or more years. In other words, almost all reactors will be retired in the next 20 years without license extensions. This is far more important than building new reactors. Without that, by 2035 when the first new 1,600 MW reactor is supposed to be operational, 26 older reactors totaling 23,550 MW will be retired.
re “France currently has …”
Yes; I recently reviewed the EDF Group and their nukes and their report to shareholders for one of the last years; I wish the US was in a similar position as France. EDF also conducts business here in the US (but I do not at the moment recall what those businesses are.)
I think their ‘idiots’ in charge are one notch sharper than the ‘idiots’ we have in charge on this side of the Atlantic. You notice they just bought part of GE that is applicable to their business? GE Steam Turbine division or some such.
https://www.powermag.com/ge-confirms-sale-of-lucrative-nuclear-steam-turbine-segment-to-edf/
GE has signed an exclusive agreement with EDF Group, an entity majority held by the French government, to sell the equipment segment and some services that make up Steam Power’s nuclear-serving steam turbine business—part of a portfolio that GE adopted during its 2015 merger with French equipment giant Alstom.
EdF is 6 – 7 years into a massive programme called the “Grand Carrenage” to upgrade and refurbish all of their nukes, bar one (Fessenheim). They expect to spend about €50 bn. The work includes replacing steam generators and other major components and will extend the plants’ operating lives.
Flamanville was the first EPR to be ordered but the first into service was t at Taishin in China which went into service last year with the sister plant due online imminently, last I read. The plant at Olkiluoto in Finland is due online any day now.
Alan
From what read the plan is to make modern modular units not the AVIRA monstrosities. Similarly Ontario’s new Gen4 plan is about the same s size and technology.
Does than make more sense?
Enough nonsense already. Make them prove they have a secure and reliable 24/7 alternate supply before shutting down the coal plant, or prove that the old plant was never or is not needed (not likely). For elected representatives to do anything less is irresponsible to the citizens.
While I sympathize with the workers who may lose their jobs, I am curious about their voting record. I feel for conservatives trapped in blue states, but have to wonder about the voting record of union workers – if they consistently voted the party line as many union workers do, then they only have themselves to blame given that the disastrous green policies are the exclusive domain of the left.
One of the reasons that biden stays with his “good union jobs” rhetoric is that it had always worked in the past … it was relatively easy to dupe the union voting block.
It seems that as long as the govt delivers the freebies, the union adherents will keep voting for what they perceive as security. Most of them will vote selfish security, even as they watch their neighbors waste away; they’ll vote perceived security right up until the mill/plant doors close.
Does anyone know where the breaker panel for the Wolf’s mansion is ? Want to show him what a blackout really means. Since they already shut TMI a few years ago. He’s working on his version of Cali power.. Wolf can stuff the RGGI. Let’s unplug the whole administration.
Heh. Better yet, learn to use one of these (just kidding, of course):
The S&C Loadbreak Tool Operation
I will mention that the FDA is not even permitted to exist under the US Constitution. The federal government only legitimately has the powers listed for it in the Constitution. Individual states might, and I think should, support something like the FDA. But then they get to choose to follow their recommendations or not.
Do you remember the (paraphrasing now) ‘Pure Food and Drug Acts’ (and the Meat Inspection Act in 1906) passed some +100 years ago now?
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 prohibited the sale of misbranded or adulterated food and drugs in interstate commerce and laid a foundation for the nation’s first consumer protection agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
This is the same Pennsylvania with shale gas coming out of it’s ears?
Somehow, I think they will find a way to keep the lights on.
Of course! Same reason two new EPRs are not being built next two BWRs in PA.
EDF bought into US reactors with the plan to build EPRs. What they learned from Americans was how to keep reactors running longer. Hence the delay of building new reactors in France.
Closing old coal plants might have something to do with being old.
Aric Baker, a Local 459 senior business representative, wishes his parent union was more vocal about regulations threatening the plants.
This may not be popular, but:
I find it difficult to have sympathy for these Unions when they insist on supporting the very people who are regulating their businesses out of existence: see http://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/21Daily/2112/Stacey_Abrams for an example.
I’ve never been a union member so maybe there’s some ignorance on my part: but it seems to me that the members who follow the Union guidance on voting need to open their eyes and stop. And the membership needs to start electing different leaders, and/or stand up to their unions in some other manner.
Their wounds are self-inflicted
I think it’s time to flip the script on this claim that citizens that disagree with CAGW are seditious. Realists should form a class action suit to sue the global warming/climate change supporters with sedition. Vet everything out in a court of law in front of a jury. I think it will be the trial of the century and the truth will prevail because the whole CAGW hypothesis is founded on junk science. CO2 is not an evil pollutant but rather a giver of life to our carbon based existence.