Introduction
This past winter our gas and
electric bills doubled from the previous year. Both
companies confirmed that my usage was about the same
year to year. Inflation has taken its toll and we simply
can’t escape the spiraling costs of everything these
days.
Why are our electricity costs
increasing when we have nuclear, abundant coal, and gas
to power the country? Obviously, more power plants are
needed and it didn’t take long to find out why. With our abundant energy resources
our utility bills should be much lower.
Empowering Our Grid
America is facing rolling brown
outs during peak usage periods and we no longer have sufficient electric
generation capacity. This
wasn’t caused by climate change; the problem is manmade.
Over 300 coal fired power plants were forced to close
since 2010, mostly due to onerous new EPA regulations
and cost considerations.
Coal Plants Forced to Close
A third of the closed coal plants
were either converted to natural gas or replaced with
new gas fired plants. A new EPA wastewater rule will
cause 75 additional coal fired plants across the country
to stop production if the rule isn’t rescinded.
India, China, and Japan are
building hundreds of new
high efficiency low emission (HELE), ultra-supercritical
coal-fired power plants. EPA regulations prohibit
building HELE coal-fired power plants in the US even
though these power plants have a Higher Heat Value (HHV)
efficiency rating of 45% then our existing fleet of
coal-fired power plants in the US that have an average
efficiency of 33% HHV. The life expectancy of a HELE
plant is 60 years compared to just 20 years for windmill
and solar farms.
According to the Institute of
Energy Research (IER), “1,600 coal plants are planned or
under construction in 62 countries. If constructed,
these new plants would increase global coal-fired
capacity by 43 percent.” In many cases these plants will
use our exported coal to fuel their power grid. We
should be building low emission HELE plants where needed
to utilize our vast coal resources and shore up our
grid.
The State of Renewables
The Energy Information
Administration (EIA) announced plans to deploy 21.5 GW
of solar and 7.6 GW of wind in the U.S. in 2022 that
would surpass the estimated 15.5 GW of solar additions
in 2021.
Renewables are fairly unreliable
and often require huge government loan guarantees and
grants. Remember the wind-turbine failures that helped
to shutdown
the Texas power grid during freezing temperatures,
California’s usage restrictions this year, and the
bankrupt Crescent Dunes concentrated solar power company
that shut down in 2020. This company was developed with
$737 million in U.S. Department of Energy loan
guarantees! Solyndra LLC was another solar
panel manufacturer that received over $500 million in
government funding that went bankrupt in 2011.
We must have a ready reserve of
sustainable carbon-based power sources that can be the
mainstay of our grid for the foreseeable future.
Nuclear Plants Decommissioned
Six nuclear power plants closed
since 2013. Europe is reopening mothballed coal fired
and nuclear facilities to shore up their electric grid,
it seems like a reasonable course of action for us here
at home
To make matters worse, we currently
have 93 nuclear reactors located at 55 nuclear power
plants in 28 states that generate 20 percent of our
power needs according to the US Energy Information
Agency. Twenty-one reactors are scheduled for
decommissioning!
In 2016, the Tennessee Valley
Authority's (TVA) Watts Bar Unit 2 in Tennessee became
the first new U.S. reactor to come online since 1996,
two others are under construction in Georgia.
One of the downsides to nuclear is
waste disposal. It needs to be properly handled in new
and existing plants. They currently store much of it on
site in large steel containers. A catastrophe waiting to
happen. Another reason to retain and expand our
carbon-based energy production.
Summary
All sources should be explored and used to provide efficient and reliable power for residential and commercial use, one size doesn’t fit all. A push to fast track EVs is destined to fail if we don’t step back and adjust our expectations.
Many countries that joined the Paris Accord are going full steam ahead to provide their country’s power through any and all means possible. We should be doing the same and gradually phase in EVs and green energy as technology improves, generation costs moderate, and the infrastructure is available.
Special interests and their lobbyists have taken over Washington and are driving these initiatives before they are viable and ready for prime time.