Coal-fired power stations trialling ‘carbon capture’ technology could be exempt from regulations
A new generation of coal-fired power stations will be built without permanent curbs on emissions, say green groups, who warn that a “whopping loophole” risks a new age of pollution.
Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary, claimed last week that his reforms “will ensure we can keep the lights on, bills down and the air clean”. His department boasted that the Draft Energy Bill will “provide a regulatory backstop to prevent construction of new coal plants which emit more than 450g/kWh”.
But buried in the fine print was confirmation that new coal-fired power stations will in fact not be subject to the coalition’s carbon cap, known as the Emissions Performance Standard (EPS), provided they trial a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change this weekend admitted that if the largely untested and expensive CCS technology fails, the power station will go on polluting. “We will consider the circumstances at the time,” a spokesman said.
Environmentalists seized on the revelation, claiming ministers had caved into the coal industry and allowed it to avoid limits on emissions that contribute to climate change. There are 14 coal-fired power stations currently in the UK. In November, North Ayrshire Council rejected plans for a new plant at Hunterston.
Joss Garman, a senior campaigner for Greenpeace, said ending the era of dirty coal had been a flagship pledge from both parties in the coalition. “But now the Lib Dem Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, seems to have slipped the coal industry a whopping loophole that could mean some of the most polluting power stations known to man could be built in the UK and exempted from pollution controls.
“David Cameron and Nick Clegg must step in and put right this mess of a policy to make sure we don’t see the spectre of highly polluting coal plants like Kingsnorth return.”
Coal can, through lots of pressure, yield a clean-burning gas or petroleum products. Building “cracking-plants” would provide lots of refinery-building jobs, which could be taxed, plus lots of steel would be needed to withstand the pressures of cracking coal to fuels. With scrubbers, a coal-slurry would be cleaner than just a straight coal-burn, but the British govt. has probably promised all of its funds for windmills,–if not the construction of them,–than the subsidies for them once they’re built. To have wind power, is to ALSO HAVE to build “back-up” gas-fired generators to provide up to 90% of all of the output from windmill(s). The coal, cracked, could FUEL those gas-”back-up” generators, but the chain of steel, then refineries, to get gas, would be impractical compared to simply drilling in Britian for shale-gas. CNG is a cold liquid that performs a hydraulic-function, fracturing the shales, and releasing the gas trapped in those shales. CNG warms after used for fracking, and turns into a lighter-than-air-vapor, following the shale gas up to the well-head, and preventing ANY contamination of water tables. The Greens should push for shale-gas to burn in gas-plants for power-generation. Because some Greens are protecting Russian-gas “interests”,or aresimply neo-Luddites, they’ll probably resist fracking, even with CNG. Due to new technology, the Oil/gas outfits want to “hook-up” people with energy from known sources before they figure-out how to drill for their own. A HUGE BOOM in Energies will allow the USA to pay-off ALL of its debts, if the BilderBORGers have their EPA-”dog” chained & Muzzled,–its Kenyan-boy President retired to later ruin the U.N.(–which will be Easy as the U.N. is already ruined, imo). Soros “owns” Nobama, so Nobama’ll resist domestic drilling/development if he gets a second-term, via a “hack” into SCYTL. The Powers-That-Be have to DEMAND that the Demoncrats “dump” Nobama for Clinton, so that the Demoncrats can continue to compete with Republicans. If Nobama “steps-down”, our next President is Hillary(Bill) Clinton, because a hack on SCYTL will “work” for her, too. As a moderate and a Centrist, Ramney doesn’t have a chance with a SCYTL-hack, that turns his “landslide” into a “Nobama/Clinton-Mandate” with a single key-stroke. Imo, with SCYTL holding the USA vote, NO Republican President can win, even if Jesus Christ was “Running with the Elephants!” As there’s NO AGW, it really doesn’t matter what the British do,–it’s their country. The cheapest, CLEANEST solution is NOT wind/coal-gas, but simply shale-gas, using CNG as a non-polluting fracking medium. An expensive but much better solution than wind/gas is nuclear, via Thorium-fueled LFTRs .