TheAK’s Recent Comments

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  Comment: natural gas emits half as much CO2 when burned, but transportation and production add another 25% per NREL study by Pamela Spath.

  On Coal-nundrum and Ex-gas-peration posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

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  Thanks for your insightful comments and the lessons, Auden and Sean.  You are both my heroes out there, helping those of us new to this understand the information and gain perspective.

  On Coal-nundrum and Ex-gas-peration posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

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  I live in Colorado, where Xcel Energy's revenues are $2.4 billion/year.  In 2008, Xcel spent over $1 billion on coal and natural gas - WOW.  Plus there are costs for chemicals and pollution control devices etc.  It's tragic that we're spending all this money on fossil fuels while pretending that the fossil fuels have zero externalities.

  TVA estimates it will spend $1 billion to "clean up" the coal ash from the spill at the Kingston coal plant.  How much will we spend in the future on coal ash "clean-up" and how do you "clean it up" exactly?  (Perhaps you've seen the campaign "we don't want to be your ash-hole" from a woman in AL where TVA is dumping the coal ash.)

  On Coal-nundrum and Ex-gas-peration posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

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  I'm sure you know the story of Samuel Insull and how he and his cronies "created" the regulatory system we have today.  If I remember correctly, it was in the early part of the 1900's when there was a battle royale between the private power companies and the munis.  Insull came up with the regulatory system as a way that appeared public, knowing full well that it was easy to affect the regulatory system.  In the couple of states that I've worked in -- and as someone fairly new to the PUC process -- I can't believe how FEW people really know what's going on, and how hard it is to get basic, critical information.  It's a fight all the way.  (I was amused by the recent decision in WV in the SWEPCO case where the judge admonished the PUC staff and attorneys for basically doing nothing.  Unfortunately, that's what we have.  A system with very little transparency.

  How do we change this?  What do we need to do to open up the process and make this critical information public?  How do we implement True Cost Accounting, where we look at ALL values, including water use, effect on peak load, pollution, health costs etc?

  Any advice?

  On Coal-nundrum and Ex-gas-peration posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

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  Washington Public Power Supply's $2.4 billion default due to abandoned nuclear is STILL the LARGEST municipal default in the history of the U.S. -- and it was in the 1980's.

  Natural gas emits another 25% of GHGs from transportation and production (see NREL study by Pamela Spath).  And how "clean" is drilling and frac'ing and ruining the water supply?

  Why don't the utilities use existing natural gas and coal plants and hybridize with Concentrating Solar Power or wind?  

  Re: efficiency programs - I believe only one state (Vermont) had the courage to put in place third party energy efficiency (EE) at a MUCH lower cost than the utilities.  The utilities only care about "cost recovery" -- they don't seem to get it on climate change.

  The utilities largely created this climate change mess, and I doubt they'll get us out of it. 

  We need REAL competition in the market place, so that small companies can compete.  Instead we get bloated utilities with even more bloated executives who care more about multi-million dollar salaries than solving serious energy issues.  The average utility CEO makes $6 million/year. 

  On Coal-nundrum and Ex-gas-peration posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses