2011: Coal Gains Ground in Texas
As always, Lone Star Staters can look forward to benefiting from the latest and greatest in energy technology. Sometimes, that means taking advantage of traditional Texas energy sources, and doing so in new and improved ways. Indeed, Texans are using electricity generated by wind farms and solar collectors. These and other methods of generation are better for the environment and bring Texas jobs that can't be sent overseas, but they're not currently sufficient to satisfy all of our needs. For a number of reasons, coal is making a comeback in Texas and it's not all bad.
The big news at the start of 2011 was that coal overtook natural gas as Texas's number one electricity generation fuel. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Texans used 120,732,437 Megawatt hours of electricity generated from natural gas. Coal, on the other hand, accounted for 124,948,749 Megawatt hours of juice. (For reference, wind farms and water turbines provided Texas with just over 25 million MWh.)
As a result of the fact that Texas now receives almost 40% of its energy from coal, it's important to consider the benefits and consequences of the situation. Elizabeth Souder, reporter for the Dallas News, points out the implications for electricity costs. In general, it's cheaper to get power from coal than many other fuels. The possibility exists that, if the trend toward coal continues, Texas energy consumers could see lower utility bills.
There are, of course, environmental concerns to be addressed when it comes to the use of coal. While there are some coal mines located in Texas, the Energy Information Administration notes that a substantial portion of the coal burned in the state is brought from Wyoming by rail. Those locomotives require a great deal of fuel themselves, and this results in the emission of greenhouse gases. Once the material finds its way to Texas's twenty coal-fired plants, it's burned, resulting in still more emission of carbon dioxide.
While it's always important to be concerned about greenhouse emissions, the Energy Information Administration claims that 2009 saw a steep 8.6% decline in the release of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. These gases are a problem, of course, because of their tendency to reflect sunlight and prevent heat from escaping from the Earth. Little by little, global temperatures have risen; most scientists attribute this change to the increased atmospheric presence of these gases. This decline could have been caused by a couple factors. Plants that burn fossil fuels are often required to have scrubbers installed on their smokestacks to prevent the release of these gases.
The increased use of coal may become an important political factor in the years to come. Dave Michaels, writing for the Dallas Morning News, described a significant dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Texas authorities. The EPA, created by President Nixon, is charged with ensuring pollution remains within acceptable levels. New guidelines were instituted to regulate companies and industries that are responsible for the most pollution. Governor Perry and other state officials declined to enforce these guidelines, claiming the EPA doesn't have the right to issue permits to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.
As always, these kinds of disputes will be resolved in the courts and through legislative back-and-forth in the months and years to come. While the use of renewable energy is on the rise (particularly wind energy), the conflict between Texas officials and the EPA could intensify if Texans continue to increase their use of coal. These concerns are also somewhat alleviated by so-called “clean coal” technology. Recent advances have allowed power companies to burn coal in such a way that far less carbon dioxide is emitted from their smokestacks.
If history is any indication, technology will provide a solution to most of these problems. As renewable energy becomes more commonplace, there will be less need to burn coal and oil in the first place. The consumption of these fuels will likely follow a discernible bell curve, as is the case with so many other situations. Coal consumption may be at its peak now, but that figure will probably decrease slowly as other sources of energy are used more extensively. The individual consumer can help make this happen in a couple ways. First, you can follow electricity conservation measures around your home. Second, you can take advantage of REPs such as Dynowatt, who offers their GoGreen plan. Instead of lighting your home with coal-based electricity, you'll get juice that was generated from wind power instead of from coal.