Power plant plans fizzle

It would have been huge.
     The $1.6 billion "clean coal" power plant at the Huntley Station site in the Town of Tonawanda would have brought 1,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent plant jobs. Western New York hasn't seen a project like that in a long time.
     But in the end, the cost of the plant and the experimental nature of the plan to inject the captured carbon dioxide into the ground proved too much of a lift for the state.
     A smaller plant with a similar goal of injecting carbo dioxide underground is going forward in Jamestown, but a proposal for a similar project in Somerset in Niagara County will not be considered.
     In the meantime, the Huntley Station, one of the dirtiest coal plants in the nation, will keep running.

-- Grove Potter

Comments

[Stan]

For a demo of a natural gas fueled car, go to jaylenosgarage.com for a video. It is being done now.

[The Relocated]

How was this process "clean"? Burying your problems and hoping some future generation can figure the solution to the problem is not sound environmental policy. Even clean burning coal were possible it would never be truly "clean" until mining companies stop laying waste to coal country by blowing off mountain tops and letting the run off from thier operation contaminate local water supplies.

We have an abundance of natural gas in this country. Why the heck are we not using it?

[Justice]

Since Jamestown gets the new clean coal plant and new jobs, and Tonawanda is stuck with a dirty old one that will likely be shut down, and since the bulk of Jamestown's energy needs are already met with clean, cheap hydropower from Niagara Falls, while Tonawnda's are not, why doesn't the Power Authority issue low-cost hydropower to Tonawanda? Afterall, the residents of Tonawanda have been breathing the fumes and soot particles from burning dirty coal for years, and they will be losing tax revenues and jobs when the coal plant shuts down. Tonawanda residents have paid a price, and now it's time for payback.

[Art Klein]

The NRG proposal was a no brainer from the start. The proposed very sophisticated process of removing emissions at combustion in a plant with mostly fifty some year old parts is just impossible.

NRG used minimal cost estimates which immediately made the project suspect. Nationwide the cost estimates are running at 35% to 50% of the project costs and NRG thought hey could hold it to about 20% of the project cost, and get this, before they had a design or model. That is some reach...or something.

But the overall rising costs of construction materials and a Carbon Capture Sequestration process that has yet to be demonstrated puts all these projects in doubt.

I am disappointed that Governor Paterson blessed the Jamestown facility with money.

God bless New York we just keep finding rotting cadavers to pump oxygen into in hopes of revival. It is the victory of hope over reality that keeps this going.

At the same time the state is going to save Buffalo by burying the rail line downtown and returning traffic to Main Street. After that they will rebuild Hens and Kellys, Hengerers and Kleinhans and all Western New York can move back into the city and happily frolic in 1955 redux.

[Neil]

According to the World Energy Council, a group of about 100 member nations with it's headquarters in London,UK., the rise of Nuclear Power is inevitable. It produces no GHG (green-house-gases) and very little waste, especially the newer types of technologies being used for today’s reactors. It frees up coal, natural gas, and oil for other uses such as motor fuel (gasoline), home heating, etc.... while decreasing our dependence on foreign sources of energy. With the increasing use of digital equipment (computers, plasma TV’s, and so on) here and around the world, along with the promise of electrically powered automobiles, we're going to need a lot more electrical generation. Nuclear is ready, proven, and it alleviates global warming while it helps our economy by reducing imported energy. A Win-Win solution!

[Stan]

The wise cancellation of unproven "clean coal" brings into question the level of knowledge and advisors of local government officials.
They are consistently behind the curve of advancing technology, subjecting the area's citizens to really wasteful time and energy costs. That's inefficiency the area cannot afford, and one that is easily correctible, with real homework. The cancellation gives outsiders the view of really rube leaders here.

[Ivona Vujica]

THE END OF THE DINOSAUR CIVILIZATION (FOSSIL FUELS, NUCLEAR) AND THE EMERGING CONFLATION OF GLOBAL WARMING, GLOBAL CIVIL WAR, WORLD ECONOMIC DEPRESSION AND THE EXTINCTION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES…

According to an old story, a lord of ancient China once asked his physician, a member of a family of healers, which of them was the most skilled in the art. The physician, whose reputation was such that his name became synonymous with medical science in China, replied, “My eldest sister sees the spirit of sickness and removes it before it takes shape, so her name does not get out of the house. My elder brother cures sickness when it is still extremely minute, so his name does not get out of the neighborhood. As for me, I puncture veins, prescribe medicines, and massage skin, so from time to time my name gets out and is heard among the lords.”

(Dr. Thomas Cleary’s introduction to Sun Tzu’s Art of War translation – note: Sun Tzu was writing at a time when Chinese civilization was embroiled in civil wars.)

War, Global Warming, financial calamity, starvation and suffering has become pornographic fodder world-wide. “The best and brightest” participate and profit by it regardless of their being on the right, left or the middle.

Chaos and Disorder are imbued and dispersed in our Knowledge-, Economic-, Climate-, even Wisdom networks of knowing. Politicians run amuck and Corporations have their blinders on to everything except what legally they are obligated to do – that is to make profit above all else. (see The Corporation documentary - What is a corporation? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pin8fbdGV9Y )

Too late is it now for long-term planning in the phase-out of King Coal and other Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power and Weapons.

All Tribes, Nations, Communities and Peoples must call and ACT for the Full Abolition of King Coal, Fossil Fuels, Nuclear Power and Weapons immediately.

Abolition of King Coal, Fossil Fuels and Nuclear power and Weapons Everywhere!

Call for the Abolition in your community now-
Stop the Global Warming Machines!
Stop the Coming Genocides - Food/Water/Energy Chaos!
Divest from King coal

For rest of document see

http://quebec.indymedia.org/en/node/28427 (previous document)
http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com (this document)

http://burningdinosaur.wordpress.com/

[Raymond S.S. General Physics Lockport,NY]

I would like everyone to read the History of Nuclear Power 1940 - 2000 at www.users.owt.com/smsrpm/nksafe/ with an open common sense mind and determine how we should proceed. We can have
CHEAP SAFE DEPENDABLE POWER, create thousands of construction jobs throughout our country, add to our manufacturing baseline (REMEMBER GE & WESTINGHOUSE), build plants away from populated areas to extinguish the fear factor, have a cleaner GREENER environment, preserve our natural resources and get on with our lives and the lives of those yet to be born.

[DaveM]

What makes you think we would get cheap hydro-power? Thie IS New York you know.

[No Nukes]

Local taxpayers are struggling to survive in an impoverished region breathing air contaminated by one of the dirtiest coal plants in the nation and paying high electricity rates to boot. Why not level the old coal plant to clear the air, and reward taxpayers remaining here with cheap hydro-power from Niagara Falls?

[DaveM]

Why not level it and build a new generation Nuclear Facility. That will actually make money, instead of our taxes having to pay for something that will lose money. And that energy will be available 24/7, unlike the heavily subsidized wind farms.