Pippy: Coal power plant regulations not 'realistic'
John Pippy summed up the attitude of the coal industry toward developing state and federal clean air standards by simply saying: “Oversight is good, overreach is bad.”
Speaking Friday at a luncheon meeting that followed the quarterly board meeting of the Mon Valley Progress Council, Pippy, a former state legislator, said federal regulations seeking to reduce carbon dioxide emissions at coal burning power plants are not realistic nor based on current technology.
The political debate is far reaching for Pennsylvania, which owns 30 percent of the world's coal reserves, and the coal industry, which contains 91 percent of the energy reserves, based on Btu, Pippy said.
Forty-two percent of electric generation is coal based, said Pippy, the chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, an organization which advocates on behalf of the coal industry.
In comparison, 35 percent is nuclear generated and 18.5 percent comes from natural gas.
Pippy, who served 16 years in Harrisburg before retiring in 2012, said because of the standards being set for the Obama administration for 2015 and beyond, no new coal-fueled power plants are being built.
Locally, FirstEnergy closed the coal-fired Mitchell Power Plant Jan. 3 rather than retrofit them to meet tougher emissions standards.
At the time, FirstEnergy cited the Environmental Protection Agency's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards as the reason behind the closings. The move idled 70 workers at the plant, located in the Courtney section of Union Township.
Asked about the Mitchell Power Plant, Pippy said the Obama administration should expedite the permitting process to allow for construction of new, cleaner burning plants to replace ones lost.
“How do you close a power plant without replacing it,” asked Tim Urda, owner of Badzik Printing in Donora.
“That was my testimony to the EPA,” Pippy replied.
Pippy said his alliance is advocating for cleaner standards that make reductions in carbon dioxide emissions more manageable and spread out over a longer time period.
“To meet the current standards being proposed you would have to eliminate coal,” Pippy said.
“Energy future is in innovation, not regulation.”
Pippy said regulations have cut the use of Pennsylvania coal at a time when 1,200 new power plants are being built worldwide.
“We should be replacing plants with cleaner-run coal plants so we can ship electricity to those 1,200 plants around the world,” Pippy said. “But this administration will eliminate coal from our portfolio.”
At the start of his presentation, Pippy asked each business leader in attendance to introduce themselves and challenged them to state the connection of coal to their livelihood.
As he concluded his presentation, Pippy asked the group to lobby against State House Bill 2354. The proposed bill would require “the Department of Environmental Protection to receive approval from the General Assembly for a State plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions for existing stationary sources prior to submitting the state plan to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approval.”
Chris Buckley is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-684-2642 or cbuckley@tribweb.com.
