New standards adopted: The California Energy Commission on
Monday, 21 November approved the Integrated Energy Policy Report, which
included new standards on greenhouse gas emissions beyond the reach of
traditional, coal-fired power plants.
Major setback to Wyoming: Wyoming energy officials said
California’s decision was a major setback to plans to build new coal
plants to supply California via a planned transmission line. The
decision also could affect the future value of Wyoming’s coal reserves.
Must be as clean as best gas-fired plant: California’s new
policy restricted future purchases of out-of-state, coal-based power to
those facilities that can prevent pollution from entering the air. Any
new coal plant that wished to sell electricity there must be as clean
as the best natural-gas fired plant.
Blow to proposed Wyoming-to-California transmission line:
Wyoming officials have said coal-fired power plants would be the most
affordable and most attainable option to secure investment in the
proposed Wyoming-to-California Frontier transmission line. Once that
investment was made, they said the line could carry power from wind,
solar and other renewable resources that California wanted.
Incentive to invest in zero emission coal technology: A
spokesman for the Wyoming Conservation Voters Education Fund said the
California decision might finally force investors to support
zero-emission coal technology.
Writing on the wall: “The writing is on the wall,” said Jason
Marsden, executive director of Wyoming Conservation Voters. “Investors
should think twice before investing their money on new coal-combustion
power plants that can’t capture global warming pollutants since
California, the biggest potential electricity customer, is no longer
interested in buying dirty, coal-fired power.”
Silver lining in the cloud for Wyoming: The California policy
could have a silver lining for Wyoming if California officials
ultimately conclude that they needed to invest funds to work with
Wyoming to develop clean-coal technologies.
Reference: Digest of latest news reported on website of Climate
Change Secretariat of United Nations Framework on Climate Change
Control (UNFCCC). 23 November. Address: PO Box 260 124, D-53153 Bonn.
Germany. Phone: : (49-228) 815-1005, Fax: (49-228) 815-1999. Email: press@unfccc.int
http://www.unfccc.int
Erisk Net, 24/11/2005