Articles by Clark Williams-Derry

New California power regs might hurt coal … or not

Good news! California has moved to curb the spread of coal-fired power plants. This is a really big deal, since energy companies have been vying to build as many as 35 of the carbon-spewing facilities in western states, largely to feed California's growing demand for electricity.

But California state regulators -- justifiably concerned about the climate impacts of burning so much coal -- got tricky: they prohibited the state's utilities from buying power from any plant that emits more carbon than a super-efficient natural gas power plant.

In other words, new coal-fired power is a no-go for the California market, unless plant operators somehow figure out a way to burn coal without emitting CO2 into the atmosphere.

That's the theory. But the western power market may actually work to undermine California's good intentions.

Cheap forests and carbon sinks

Holy cow:

A recently formed company ... has purchased 440,000 acres of timber land in southern Oregon for $108 million, officials said. [Emphasis added.]

Just in case you were wondering how much land that is: the sale covers nearly 700 square miles, an area well over half the size of the state of Rhode Island. Of course, Rhode Island is tiny, as states go. But it seems like a lot of land, and at a bargain basement price, to boot. At $245 per acre, even I could afford to become a real estate mogul. Heck, some houses cost more than $108 million.

Silliness aside, this sale makes me wonder whether a carbon trading system -- where polluters have to pay for emissions reductions or sequestration -- might create huge opportunities for ecosystem restoration.

Green power programs at utilities remain teensy

From last week, good news about Portland General Electric:

PGE [has moved to] the head of the pack nationally in terms of demand for green energy. Under its green-power program, Oregon's largest utility sells more kilowatts of renewable power to its residential customers than any other utility in the country, regardless of size. [Emphasis added]

Wow. PGE is nowhere near the nation's largest utility. Still, it leads the nation "green energy" signups -- people who opt to pay a bit extra on their home utility bills to support wind, solar, small hydro, or similar climate-friendly energy sources. Seems like PGE, and its customers, deserve a pat on on the back.

But wait, there's more! (Or perhaps less ...)

The boring green-building stuff is the best

Moises Velasquez-Manoff of the Christian Science Monitor gets this exactly right: