Is Texas being . . . is it being punished for its “redness”? This story is very, very strange.
Bryan Preston, at PJM:
ERCOT: EPA Rule Threatens to Turn Out the Lights in Texas
Texas’ Electric Reliability Coalition of Texas — ERCOT — is firing up the warning flare that if the EPA’s new cross-state rules go into effect on January 1, 2012, parts of Texas may well go dark.
This is one of those cases where we believe it is our role to voice our concern that Texas could face a shortage of generation necessary to keep the lights on in Texas within a few years, if the EPA’s Cross-State Rule is implemented as written.
ERCOT’s May11 report to the Public Utility Commission on the impact of the proposed environmental regulations did not address the impact of SO2 restrictions on coal plants in ERCOT because these restrictions on Texas were not included as part of the EPA’s earlier rule proposal. We have not had time to fully analyze the entire 1,323-page Cross-State Rule released July 7 or to communicate with the generation owners regarding what their intentions will be. However, initial implications are that the SO2 requirements for Texas added at the last stage of the rule development will have a significant impact on coal generation, which provided 40 percent of the electricity consumed in ERCOT in 2010.
Our concern is that the timing of the new requirements – effective Jan. 1, 2012 – is unreasonable because it does not allow enough time to implement operational responses to ensure reliability. We fear that many of the coal plants in ERCOT will be forced to limit or shut down operations in order to maintain compliance with the new rule, possibly leading to inadequate operating reserve margins with insufficient time to reliably retrofit existing generation or build new, replacement generation.
The EPA set out this rule change in a way that guaranteed push back, and that is completely counter to the transparency that Obama promised. I know, that was a cynical lie, but nevertheless he promised it. The EPA has no idea just how much trouble this rule change may potentially cause. I strongly suggest that they re-think this and stand down. Never mind leaving businesses and families uncertain on their electricity in the winter at the turn of the year — an election year, no less. That’s just the beginning of the trouble the Obama gang is courting here.
Texas is not going to go dark, not for the EPA or anyone else. We just won’t. Having the EPA tell Texas to turn out the lights is among the quickest ways of creating a “Come and take it” moment I can think of.
Read the whole thing.
dxturner on July 21, 2011 at 9:26 am said:
Strange indeed, for a President to all but declare war on a state. The PJM article makes it sound like the EPA has stumbled into this and made a mistake, but the history of Obama’s trespasses against Texas make it seem more intentional than that. The question becomes why?
I have my theory … it’s not just about clean air and hating Texas.
ponce on July 21, 2011 at 11:45 am said:
Texas isn’t all that “Red” these days.
Thanks to immigration and birth rates, it should be a reliable Democratic state in less than 10 years.
ponce on July 21, 2011 at 2:09 pm said:
Turns out Texans consume over three times as much energy per capita as New Yorkers do.
Oink!
http://www.eia.gov/state/seds/index.cfm
On a side note: The font being used for quotes, in light gray and italics, is very hard to read.
Dan Collins on July 21, 2011 at 3:08 pm said:
Yes, and produce 20 times more energy. Wouldn’t be a better country, really, if everybody lived in NYC and ate only what they grew in their window boxes?