Gregg: Coal: the dim bulb energy policy
By BEN GREGG - Guest Columnist
Sunday, Feb. 08, 2009

Last week, legislative leaders went to Washington to say that South Carolina deserves sympathy and a break because it is overly dependent on coal power. This week, Santee Cooper officials are asking the DHEC board for permission to build another coal power plant.

Welcome to the dim bulb energy policy. It involves asking forgiveness for past coal sins and permission to commit new ones that will cost ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Our state already gets 60 percent of its power from coal, because state officials have ignored efficiency and renewable energy for decades. As a result, South Carolina ranks third in electricity usage and has some of the highest electricity bills in the nation.

Rather than take responsibility, the contingent that zoomed up to Washington blamed our weather. South Carolina is too cool for efficiency, they said, and also too warm for it. They also blamed citizens. We are too dumb and poor to be efficient, they reported. Plus, we live in trailers.

All balderdash. Weather? Georgia and North Carolina, with similar climates, pay less for power. Mobile homes? Roof caps and belly wraps decrease power use by 31 percent, and create jobs while doing it. Too poor? Telling people who pay high power bills they can’t afford efficiency is like telling a man he can’t diet because he’s too fat.

But this is the dim bulb approach. We have vast wind power resources documented on our coast, yet the dim bulb report that legislative leaders put out just in time to peddle on their Washington trip (and here at home) didn’t mention that at all. Studies show that efficiency-upgrade potential is huge here, but this too went unreported.

Why? Because the objective in Washington was to ask for special treatment and a handout. You see, controls on carbon dioxide are coming, and coal produces more carbon dioxide than any other fuel. Since South Carolina burn lots of coal, our leaders see a big price tag coming, and they want others to pay for it.

U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham asked if the state might lower its carbon costs by, say, reducing carbon emissions. But that is not the dim bulb way. To the contrary, the plan is to increase emissions: Santee Cooper proposes a coal plant on the Pee Dee River that would spew 10 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Other states aren’t buying what utilities such as Santee Cooper are selling. Just this past week, Michigan declared a moratorium on seven coal plants seeking approval. Applications for coal plants have been denied in Kansas, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia. A whole fleet of plants was scrapped in Texas.

On Thursday, the DHEC board will decide whether to approve the Pee Dee plant. Because it would emit 30 times more toxic mercury than other coal plants, and would do so in an area where fish are already too contaminated to eat, the S.C. Wildlife Federation and others contend the permit must be denied.

Citizens know, in these challenging days, that there are some things we just cannot afford. One of them is a multi-billion dollar coal plant that employs very few people and comes with a huge carbon price tag and environmental costs. Another is complacency. We need to avoid past mistakes, not repeat them. We should say “no” to more dirty coal, and “yes” to power that creates jobs and preserves our health and resources.

Let’s trade in the dim bulb plan for a brighter future.

Mr. Gregg is executive director of the S.C. Wildlife Federation.