Waiting for the train
Waiting for the train
August 11, 2008
A local east-west track of the Burlington-Northern-Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) runs through the village where I live. Several times a week, I get stopped for one of the 125-car unit trains that lumber through delivering coal from places as far away as the Powder River Basin (PRB) mines of Wyoming and Montana to their Midwestern electric power plant customers. The PRB is the largest single source of coal mined in the U.S. with more than 80 unit coal trains going east and west daily. About 80% of the cost of this coal is in its transportation cost from PRB on the unit trains. And while Illinois has very large high-energy bituminous coal deposits of its own, the low sulfur coal from PRB is much preferred over Illinois’ high sulfur coal, especially following enactment of the 1990 Clean Air Act requirements.
Still, electric power plants are the largest industrial emitter of greenhouse gases in the U.S., emitting more than 1,500 lb of carbon dioxide for every 1,000 kWh generated.
In May 2008, the $2.5 billion DOE-supported clean-coal power plant research project proposed for Taylorville, Ill., was canceled due to opposition by Chicago-based Commonweath Edison. Developers of the research project cited being able to ‘capture’ more than 50% of the plant’s carbon emissions. ComEd is a customer of many of those daily coal trains, and its opposition centered on the financial aspects of the research project, although it also favors more support for nuclear power. ComEd operates 10 nuclear reactors in Illinois, which has more nukes than any other state.
A few weeks ago, ComEd, citing new feasibility provisions, withdrew its opposition and the House easily passed (86-5) legislation supporting funding of the research project. Senate consideration of the research funding bill is expected in the Fall and ComEd’s support will likely to clear the way for passage there as well. Following passage of the funding bill and subsequent cost studies, the plant won’t be built until 2014 and won’t come online until 2016.
Despite the value of this technology, it’s only one plant and eight years away from even starting to demonstrate its capabilities. We hear a lot about global warming, but it appears that we’re still committed to using coal for a lengthy time into the future. A lot of wind power and solar cell capabilities are being discussed and even built, but they still only account for less than 3% of our generated electricity and despite coal’s high transportation costs, these alternative energy sources are still considerably more expensive.
Oh, BTW, at the current relatively high rate of mining the 800 billion tons of coal reserves at PRB, that particular source of coal—more than 25% of all coal mined in the U.S.—won’t be exhausted until the year 4470.
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