Through Sept 2012, Wind was 3.3% of electricity generation, Nat Gas 31.4%, Coal 36.5%, Nuclear 18.8%, Hydro 7%. Wind generation grew 17.7% since the first 9 months of 2011 & 10-yr CAGR is 28.3%; NG grew 26%. 

Source: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/ modified to combine Table 1-1 w/ 1-1a

Plains & Eastern Clean Line a Partial Answer to Climate Change Jobs for Arkansans

All,

This is a major step to end the burning of coal in Arkansas, provide jobs, and enable clean energy development throughout the region: http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=a4f79d8e295e7436abdc47a95&id=fe6b8714a1&e=a3aba0cd9a 

Without an upgraded smart grid, 1 trainload of 100+ cars of Powder River Basin coal per day will continue burning at each of the Flint Creek and the White Bluff coal-fired electric generating plants. This Clean Line Transmission Project, if done with proper environmental supervision, can transform our economy from dependence on coal to renewable energy. Both windpower and solar (distributed and utility-scale) would benefit because when the wind isn't blowing solar PV and thermal solar are excellent ways to meet peak power requirements. This can support sustainable development and jobs in Arkansas and throughout the southern U.S. Arkansas' abundant biomass and geothermal resources would be excellent as reserve power. We have not even scratched the surface in potential demand response systems, using voluntary curtailments in exchange for monetary savings as practiced in the NE and SW. We have among the least efficient building stocks in the country, meaning that efficiency alone would save more money and represent more job creation in the beaten-down construction industry than anyone can imagine. Natural Gas from Arkansas can serve a temporary backup role to ensure cheaper and cleaner peak power than coal. Politically, the in-state NG industry can help us counterbalance the out-of-state influences of the coal industry.

The use of windpower is already lowering electric bills in the SWEPCO service area (will lower bills by 0.1 cents per kWH https://www.swepco.com/info/projects/WindPowerPurchase/). If the Flint Creek Plant gets the EPA-required retrofits to stop polluting our air with mercury, NOx, SOx, and soot, the costs to SWEPCO customers will be an average increase of 3.85% and 3.4% for customers of the cooperatives https://www.swepco.com/info/projects/FlintCreekPlant/. The retrofit would make carbon emissions even worse by taking a plant designed to be minimally efficient (less than 29% thermal efficiency by design) and making it less efficient than the original design.

Carbon emissions are the main cause of Climate Change- which contribute to our droughts in the South Central region and to hurricanes like Sandy and Irene and Katrina (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/06/1144431/study-were-headed-to-11f-warming-and-even-7f-requires-nearly-quadrupling-the-current-rate-of-decarbonisation/ and http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/06/1146281/the-insurance-industry-is-finally-waking-up-and-smelling-the-climate-chaos-coffee/ and http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/03/26/451605/nature-strong-evidence-manmade-unprecedented-heat-rainfall-extremes-causing-intense-human-suffering/ and http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2009/09/08/204561/climate-change-adaptation-impacts-iied/ and http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/10/14/1009121/science-of-global-warming-impacts-guide/ and ). “Eric Pooley, senior vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund (and former deputy editor of Bloomberg Businessweek), offers a baseball analogy: ‘We can’t say that steroids caused any one home run by Barry Bonds, but steroids sure helped him hit more and hit them farther. Now we have weather on steroids.’” http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/01/1122241/bloomberg-businessweek-its-global-warming-stupid/ “The answer to the oft-asked question of whether an event is caused by climate change is that it is the wrong question. All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be….” http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/03/25/451347/must-read-trenberth-how-to-relate-climate-extremes-to-climate-change/.  Meanwhile, the Cleanline Project addresses directly an increase in availability of renewable power from regional wind https://www.swepco.com/global/utilities/lib/docs/info/projects/WindPowerPurchase/swepco-SPP-MajesticWind.pdf and http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/10/31/356735/revkin-sheen-report-debunks-anti-deployment-climate-strategy/. The Climate Progress links include meticulous links to peer-reviewed science supporting the assertions.

Please support the Cleanline Project and attend the meeting at the U of A Extension Office in Van Buren (near I-40 exit 5) on Tuesday, 13Nov12 at 9 am if you can. This is our opportunity to answer SWEPCO and the AECC in a practical response. 

We can end the death grip of coal burning!

All the Best,

Terry

Through June 2012, Wind was 3.8% of electricity generation, Nat Gas 30.4%, Coal 35.4%, Nuclear 19.5%, Hydro 7.9%. Wind generation grew 16.3% since the first 6 months of 2011; NG grew 34%. 

Source: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/ modified to combine Table 1-1 w/ 1-1a

For fans of The Hunger Games

For fans of The Hunger Games: Suzanne Collins is a modern-day St John of Patmos, illustrating her vision of the aftermath of the coming devastation due to Climate Change. Don’t believe me? From page 18, “Just as the town clock strikes two, the mayor steps up to the podium and begins to read. It’s the same story every year. He tells the history of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained.” This is a clear description of the mechanism of climate change ending in our worst fears.