Coal Plant Rush Fueled By Fear Of Eventual Regulation - Reuters

NEW YORK - US power companies are rushing to build coal-fired plants, in part because they are hoping to get them on the books ahead of potential US regulations on greenhouse gases, the author of a book on the coal industry said in an interview. "There's a dawning awareness in the coal industry that it is as good as it's going to get right now," Jeff Goodell, author of "Big Coal," to be published by Houghton Mifflin next month, said in a telephone interview. "Changing politics in America are not going to favor the coal industry," he said. US companies have submitted plans to build 120 plants that burn coal -- which emits more carbon dioxide than any other fuel -- though even the power industry says costs and permitting could pare that figure.

Unlike the European Union, whose members signed the Kyoto Protocol, the United States has no market for emissions of CO2 and other gases most scientists believe cause global warming.

President Bush favors voluntary means of cutting heat-trapping emissions, and in 2001 he pulled the United States out of the Kyoto agreement. In its first phase, the pact requires rich countries to cut CO2 by about 5 percent under 1990 levels. But politicians thought to be mulling a run for the White House in 2008, including US Sen. Hillary Clinton and perhaps former Vice President Al Gore -- both Democrats -- and Republican US Sen. John McCain, support greenhouse gases regulations.

"Once you get a price on carbon ... that changes the whole competitiveness of coal plants," said Goodell, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, whose book stemmed from a 2001 cover story he wrote for the New York Times Magazine. "All of a sudden other things look more competitive and (coal plants) make less sense," he said about the potential for wind and solar power.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36606/newsDate/1-Jun-2006/story.htm

Of course, they would all lose money in the case where no "grandfathering" was allowed.

:-)

If the situation proves to be as bad as I think it is, the grandfathering could indeed be problematic.

It would take a tremendous ramp-up of coal mining in every coal producing area of the U.S. and Canada.

All that coal is on top of all the coal that is to be made into liquids.

Those wanting to build new coal plants might also consult railway and barge companies to ascertain if there is any hope of all that coal, if mined, transported to the power plants.

This is going to end up like natural gas generation. Lots of power plants owned by the banks.

Is it possible to dismantle coal-fired power plants and ship them overseas to other coal consuming countries? They'd be good export items, along with all the gas plants.