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 VALLEY FORGE, PA — The regional electric grid will have enough power even with the anticipated wave of coal plant retirements, according to PJM Interconnection, the organization responsible for the world’s largest competitive wholesale electricity market.
In an August 26 report, PJM concluded –
Even with almost 7,000 MW less coal capacity clearing for the 2014/2015 Delivery Year, PJM estimates the RTO [Regional Transmission Organization] will carry a reserve margin of 19.6 percent for the Delivery Year, including the demand and capacity commitments of FRR [Fixed Resource Requirement] entities. Even with the potential retirement of coal capacity already announced by FRR entities, there are also announced commitments to replace a portion of that capacity with new gas-fired capacity such that the RTO would still carry a reserve margin at or above of the target 15.3 percent installed reserve margin. Add into the mix the potential for new entry from Demand Resources, as has been the trend in recent years, and resource adequacy does not appear to be threatened.
— Paul Ryder, Ohio Citizen Action
 North College Hill resident Rachael Belz. CINCINNATI — “A new plan on the table from Duke Energy may cost you more money even if you don’t buy your electricity from Duke.
Ohio’s electric de-regulation law allows customers to pick who supplies their electricity, and right now, Duke has nearly 40 competitors in Ohio…
However, Duke still delivers all the energy, does the maintenance, and collects the bills.
PJM Interconnection in Pennsylvania provides all the electricity, wholesale, to 13 states including Ohio.
Now, Duke says they’ve lost a quarter of their 680,000 customers and need to raise rates so they can assure that they can provide enough electricity for the next nine years…
Rachael Belz, of North College Hill, told Commissioner Paul Centolella that she was a Duke customer for 14 years, but switched recently to another supplier which lowered her bill by a third.
‘It seems egregious to me that a company like Duke would come after people who have switched away in part because of cost. I think it’s a way to get the monopoly back,’ said Belz.”
— Anne Thompson, Fox 19 News
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— WLWT Cincinnati
— Tina Weingartner, WVXU Cincinnati
 ALEXANDRIA, VA — “Alexandria’s controversial coal-burning power plant, once considered one of the largest single sources of air pollution in the Washington area, will probably close by October 2012, its owner and the city announced Tuesday.
The surprise announcement culminates a 12-year battle to close the six-decade-old Potomac River plant, which local activists and environmentalists blame for causing or contributing to dozens of cases of serious illness each year.
A spokeswoman for GenOn, the owner of the plant, said the plant has complied with environmental regulations and called the planned closing a “good business decision but a difficult one” because its 120 jobs will vanish.
It appears the economics of energy, in particular the prospect of increasingly costly pollution controls, pushed GenOn to consider pulling the plug.
If the plant does indeed wind down, the site could open up options for redeveloping Alexandria’s waterfront, an effort that has focused on a far smaller stretch of about eight blocks.”
— Patricia Sullivan and Tom Jackman, Washington Post
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 Hilton and Marie Kelly. PORT ARTHUR, TX — “On the fence line, common wisdom holds that you raise your voice for God and shut your mouth for oil. It’s a Do not bite the hand that feeds you kind of edict, and it sticks. But at the Shining Star Baptist Church in Beaumont a decade ago, around the time of Hilton Kelley’s homecoming, God and oil were uncharacteristically clashing. The Reverend Roy Malveaux had been trained by the activist Denny Larson—executive director of Global Community Monitor, a California-based environmental justice and human rights organization—to assess pollution levels with a device made from a five-gallon bucket, a pump, and a plastic bag. Through Malveaux and Larson, Kelley learned the bucket, too. He read up on the chemical compounds in the air and learned what they do to the body. It was all around him: millions of pounds of volatile emissions. Hexane, xylene, toluene. He started knocking on doors. “Do you know what you’re breathing?” he’d ask, and he’d tell them—methanol, benzene—and they’d look at him, angry or helpless or indifferent, like, Yeah, but what can we do? What can you do?…
Soon Kelley was raising his voice wherever he could. Environmental justice issues, after all, are not limited to Port Arthur, Texas, and so Kelley, fueled by his rapid education—and tapping into his long-standing desire to be famous—began visiting other fence line communities. Kelley traveled to Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ to jaw in front of a Shell refinery. He joined efforts in Addyston, Ohio, to protest the proximity of a school to a plastics plant. He went to Louisville, Kentucky, to challenge toxic emissions spewing from 11 chemical facilities in a poisoned neighborhood called Rubbertown. He visited polluted sites in Alabama, Mississippi, and West Virginia. He landed in Washington, D.C., and protested at the White House. And he flew to London and The Hague to give it to the Shell brass (multinational, multibillion-dollar Shell co-owns Motiva) at their annual shareholder meetings.”
— By Howie Kahn, O, The Oprah Magazine
 Chairman, President and CEO Jim Rogers of Duke Energy rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on July 12, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Ben Hider/NYSE Euronext) CINCINNATI — “A proposed plan by Duke Energy that would cost every consumer in Southwest Ohio money – even if those consumers don’t purchase electricity from Duke – will get its first public hearing on Tuesday.
Opponents say Duke’s proposal could mean sharply higher rates for customers and reverse a decade-long effort to open Ohio’s electric markets to competition…
Just how much the charge would cost customers remains unclear. A consultant retained by Compete says the Duke plan could mean an average increase of 20 percent for Duke customers who’ve switched suppliers.
In an early filing, Duke said its plan would mean an additional $4 a month starting in January for the typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month.
But much depends on unknowns such as the future costs of coal use to generate electricity.
The public gets its first chance to comment on Duke’s plan on Tuesday at the first two of four hearings scheduled by PUCO, which will make the final decision. The first hearing is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, and the second is at 6:30 p.m. at Union Township Civic Center in Clermont County.”
— Mike Boyer, Cincinnati Enquirer
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Just how much the charge would cost customers remains unclear. A consultant retained by Compete says the Duke plan could mean an average increase of 20 percent for Duke customers who’ve switched suppliers.
In an early filing, Duke said its plan would mean an additional $4 a month starting in January for the typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month.
But much depends on unknowns such as the future costs of coal use to generate electricity.
The public gets its first chance to comment on Duke’s plan on Tuesday at the first two of four hearings scheduled by PUCO, which will make the final decision. The first hearing is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, and the second is at 6:30 p.m. at Union Township Civic Center in Clermont County.
 The sky lightens just before dawn behind the cooling towers of the Perry Nuclear Power Plant. CHICAGO — “Federal authorities, concerned about repeated safety violations at the Perry nuclear power plant, are increasing scrutiny of its operations.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday slapped FirstEnergy Corp. with a safety citation, saying Perry’s managers had not prepared contract workers to follow basic safety standards for radioactive material when the plant was shut down for maintenance and refueling.
Four workers were briefly exposed to high levels of radiation April 21 when they went into a small room under the reactor to retrieve a radiation monitor stuck in the reactor’s core.
None of the four were overexposed – but only because they ran from the room when radiation monitors began alarming and the plant’s radiological protection technicians told them to leave.
A team of NRC radiation safety experts on June 30 recommended a citation after spending a month at Perry checking written procedures and interviewing workers and supervisors. The violation came on top of other safety issues dating back nearly four years.”
— John Funk, Cleveland Plain Dealer
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — “The current fleet of electric power generators has a wide range of ages. About 530 gigawatts, or 51% of all generating capacity, were at least 30 years old at the end of 2010. Trends in generating capacity additions vary by fuel type, for coal, hydropower, natural gas, nuclear, petroleum, and wind.1
Which types of power plants are oldest?
The current fleet of electric power generators has a wide range of ages. The Nation’s oldest power plants tend to be hydropower generators.
- Most coal-fired plants were built before 1980.
- There was a wave of nuclear plant construction from the late 1960s to about 1990.
- The most recent waves of generating capacity additions include natural gas-fired units in the 2000s and renewable units, primarily wind, coming online in the late 2000s.”
— U.S. Energy Information Administration
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PARIS, FRANCE — “Solar generators may produce the majority of the world’s power within 50 years, slashing the emissions of greenhouse gases that harm the environment, according to a projection by the International Energy Agency.
Photovoltaic and solar-thermal plants may meet most of the world’s demand for electricity by 2060 — and half of all energy needs — with wind, hydropower and biomass plants supplying much of the remaining generation, Cedric Philibert, senior analyst in the renewable energy division at the Paris-based agency, said in an Aug. 26 phone interview.
‘Photovoltaic and concentrated solar power together can become the major source of electricity,’ Philibert said. ‘You’ll have a lot more electricity than today but most of it will be produced by solar-electric technologies.’
The solar findings, set to be published in a report later this year, go beyond the IEA’s previous forecast, which envisaged the two technologies meeting about 21 percent of the world’s power needs in 2050. The scenario suggests investors able to pick the industry’s winners may reap significant returns as the global economy shifts away from fossil fuels.”
— Ben Sills, Bloomberg News
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 LAKE ERIE — “Since I grew up spending my summers visiting the Lake, sailing, swimming, playing in the sand, and enjoying fantastic fresh Walleye and Perch caught that morning, I’m especially eager for my children to create happy memories on our waters too. But, I remember the day I stood on the beach and looked out over the horizon and watched the factories belch into the sky. I realized that what goes up into the air, must come down. When all that smoke came down, it went straight into Lake Erie. The very Lake that provided the summer fish dinners we all looked forward to. On that same day, I counted the dead fish that washed up on the beach and determined I wouldn’t be putting that fish in my body any more, no matter how fresh it claimed to be.
Fast forward 15 years and I have made a commitment to eat foods that have been produced within my state. At first, the diet was fantastic and I felt so refreshed. Then I realized one day, during a craving for a tuna sandwich that I wasn’t eating anything in the fish category. Images of those dead perch haunted my mind. So I decided to do some research.
According to the EPA, mercury concentrations in Walleye have remained fairly steady since the 1980s. The polychlorinated biphenyl concentrations however have fluctuated in the years since the 1970’s, as more laws about waste handling have been put into place.
Regardless of the laws and regulatory acts that are working their way in and helping to clean up the waters, Lake Erie still possesses a legacy of contaminated sediments that will be with us for years to come. As a result, the bioaccumulation of toxins such as organochlorines and metals has spread up the food chain from the amphibians, to fish and finally to mammals.”
— Laura Michelle Burns, Mom Clean Air Force
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EAST LIVERPOOL — “We all have knowingly assumed the risks associated with living near a nuclear power plant, but we have not knowingly assumed the risks of living next to a coal-power plant.
What I am talking about is First Energy’s Little Blue Run Residual Waste Disposal Impoundment. The structure that is holding this impoundment together is one of the country’s largest earthen dams. This dam is plainly visible from the Ohio side if you would take care to notice.
Little Blue is one of the country’s largest unlined containment lakes. According to First Energy’s own correspondence, Little Blue contains fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, flue gas emission control residuals, coal pile runoff, and boiler cleaning materials solely from the Bruce Mansfield Power Station. If this dam were to break, the results are estimated to be up to 50,000 casualties, the Ohio River becomes toxic, and there will be countless injuries and severe health problems. According to the Pennsylvania Code of Dam Safety and Waterway Management, the dam has a Size Classification of Class A (impoundment storage equal to or greater than 50,000 acre feet) and a Hazard Potential Classification of 1 (substantial loss of life and excessive economic loss). This is the reality we live with every day.”
— Sharon K Fineman, Core Member of Citizens Against Coal Ash, letter to the Editor, East Liverpool Review
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COLUMBUS — “Energy companies eager to tap natural gas and oil from Utica and Marcellus shales in Ohio soon could face air-pollution limits on their new wells…
However, a coalition of environmental groups, including the Ohio Environmental Council and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice say the proposed permit has several loopholes that would help companies avoid installing pollution filters.
The permit, for example, wouldn’t limit air pollution from drilling or ‘fracking,’ in which millions of gallons of water laced with industrial chemicals and sand are pumped underground to crack apart the shale and release the gas and oil.
Settles said no limits are needed because drilling and fracking are ‘temporary activities.’
Teresa Mills, Ohio organizer for the advocacy group Center for Health, Environment and Justice, said hazardous compounds including benzene, a compound linked to leukemia, can evaporate into the air from the waste water that results from fracking.
‘There is the potential for a large amount of fugitive emissions coming from the drilling of natural-gas wells that would never be taken into consideration,’ Mills said.”
— Spencer Hunt, Columbus Disptach
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LONDON, ENGLAND — “The American Legislative Exchange Council, a free market campaign group, has described the impending upheaval as a ‘train wreck’ that will cost jobs, send power prices soaring and lead to blackouts.
Concern over these effects has led to several pieces of legislation being put forward in Congress to curb the EPA’s powers and stop the new rules.
Whether the pollution limits will in fact have such a devastating impact is debatable. The non-partisan Congressional Research Service argued in a report circulated last week that the most alarming forecasts were based on exaggerated assumptions about the EPA’s plans.
Nevertheless, the financial impact on US power companies could be significant.
The new regulations, intended to reduce the damage to public health from industrial pollution, include tighter restrictions on toxic chemicals in power plants’ waste gases, on water use and on the disposal of coal ash.
The first to take effect is the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which cuts the permitted emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the gases that cause acid rain. It was set out in detail in July and will be enforced from the start of 2012.”
— Ed Crooks, Financial Times
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Letters supporting the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act 7,546 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and made personal phone calls urging state legislators to support the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act as of May 8, 2013.
Ohio coal-fired power plants
Resources on proposed Cleveland incinerator
AEP’s Muskingum River Power Plant
Letters to American Electric Power 989 neighbors have sent handwritten letters urging AEP to retire its Muskingum River coal plant as of July 15, 2011.
Letters to Duke Energy 2,307 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and telewires urging Duke Energy to retire Miami Fort Unit 6 and Beckjord coal plants as of July 15, 2011.
Letters to Kokosing Asphalt 8,709 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging Kokosing Asphalt to be a good neighbor as of February 25, 2011.
Letters to Rumpke 9,205 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging Rumpke to be a good neighbor as of April 15, 2011.
Letters to FirstEnergy 3,914 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging FirstEnergy to retire their four Lake Erie coal plants as of July 15, 2011.
Mountaintop removal coal mining
Letters to Senator Sherrod Brown and Senator Rob Portman 6,615 members have sent handwritten letters and petitions to Senator Brown urging him to support US EPA rules that will protect our health from polluting coal plants as of January 24, 2012.
3,751 members have petitioned Senator Portman urging him to support US EPA rules that will protect our health from polluting coal plants as of January 24, 2012.
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VALLEY FORGE, PA — The regional electric grid will have enough power even with the anticipated wave of coal plant retirements, according to PJM Interconnection, the organization responsible for the world’s largest competitive wholesale electricity market.
