The Energy Association of Pennsylvania claims that regulations are closing coal and gas-fired power plants (“We must move beyond platitudes on clean energy” 11/21), but no operating gas-fired power plants have closed in Pennsylvania.
The coal-fired Homer City power plant closed over the summer was 54-years old and Pennsylvania exports more electricity than any state in the country. The claim that plants have closed prematurely or that Pennsylvania is at risk of an electricity shortage are both false. It’s also incorrect to claim that the “reliability and affordability of energy supplies” are threatened by environmental policies.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will soon finalize new pollution standards for oil and gas extraction facilities that will reduce climate-changing methane pollution as well as carcinogenic air pollutants like benzene, while conserving gas, increasing reliability and affordability. These standards will increase required leak inspections at well sites and compressor stations while requiring technologies that don’t directly vent gas.
The only proposal that will threaten the reliability and affordability of energy supplies are increased demands for liquified natural gas (LNG) exports. Increased exports endanger energy supplies while raising the price of gas by selling it in more competitive markets. Innovation in the storage of renewable electricity will solve any intermittency issues associated with wind and solar.
And energy storage is...
KUALA LUMPUR: Three construction company directors will face charges in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court tomorrow for submitting false claims related to a Klang Valley highway construction project....