Comments on: New Power Plants: Won’t Make Electricity Cheaper http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/new_power_plants_wont_make_electricity_cheaper/ Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:20:03 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: ken http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/new_power_plants_wont_make_electricity_cheaper/comment-page-1/#comment-75704 ken Tue, 07 Mar 2006 03:58:44 +0000 http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2006/03/new_power_plants_wont_make_electricity_cheaper/#comment-75704 Coal plants could have been built instead of gas fired plants. All they had to do was build them to produce electricity as cleanly as gas fired plants did. This was too expensive at the time, so we got twenty years of the industry building cleaner gas fired power plants instead. Not a bad deal, eh? Now that gas is more expensive it may be economically feasable to build coal plants that crub their exhaust to the standards required to not sicken the people they are built to serve. Coal plants could have been built instead of gas fired plants. All they had to do was build them to produce electricity as cleanly as gas fired plants did.

This was too expensive at the time, so we got twenty years of the industry building cleaner gas fired power plants instead. Not a bad deal, eh?

Now that gas is more expensive it may be economically feasable to build coal plants that crub their exhaust to the standards required to not sicken the people they are built to serve.

]]> By: spaceman http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/new_power_plants_wont_make_electricity_cheaper/comment-page-1/#comment-75681 spaceman Tue, 07 Mar 2006 00:52:17 +0000 http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2006/03/new_power_plants_wont_make_electricity_cheaper/#comment-75681 What put Nuks out of business in the first place was endless litigation during the construction process, which delayed plants horribly and drove up costs. It's about as hard to license a coal burning plant. Not that much has change, the US regulatory process can't handle new plants. But the rest of the world is building Nuks like crazy. What's left, natural gas. That's about all that has been built in the last 20 years, which has put tremendous pressure on the gas market. What put Nuks out of business in the first place was endless litigation during the construction process, which delayed plants horribly and drove up costs. It's about as hard to license a coal burning plant. Not that much has change, the US regulatory process can't handle new plants. But the rest of the world is building Nuks like crazy.

What's left, natural gas. That's about all that has been built in the last 20 years, which has put tremendous pressure on the gas market.

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