Coal Fired Power Plants

Southern California Edison Corp. announced Monday that it has ended a controversial attempt to invest in and operate a $1.6-billion coal-fired power plant in Mexico, about 150 miles southwest of San Antonio. The unfinished plant, called Carbon II, had raised the hackles of U.S. environmentalists and become a potent example for groups opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In an election year, any progress on environmental regulation is cause for celebration. So when the Obama administration on Tuesday released its long-delayed proposal to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, there was reason for anyone concerned about public health or the looming climate menace to cheer - even though it won't shut down a single existing coal-fired plant. Power plants are the nation's biggest single source of greenhouse gas emissions. These gases reflect heat back toward the Earth rather than letting it escape into space; as a result, global average temperatures have risen by about 1 degree since 1880, according to NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency, and carbon emissions are expected to drive increasingly rapid warming.

The Bush administration has dropped enforcement actions against dozens of coal-fired power plants that were under investigation for violating the Clean Air Act and allegedly spewing thousands of tons of illegal pollution into the air, EPA officials said Wednesday. Until now, the Bush administration had said it would vigorously pursue the enforcement actions, which were launched by the Clinton administration.

The chairman of the Sierra Club, one of the nation's most influential environmental groups, has stepped down amid discontent that the group founded by 19th century wilderness evangelist John Muir has strayed from its core principles. The departure of Carl Pope, 66, a member of the club for more than 40 years, comes as the nonprofit group faces declining membership, internal dissent, well-organized opponents, a weak economy and forces in Congress trying to take the teeth out of environmental regulations.

During the next decade, electricity demand around the ever-brightening Pacific Rim will likely quadruple the capacity of Asian coal-fired power plants, opening an enormous potential market for U.S. coal. With it could come a big market for environmentally advanced clean-burning technology, if U.S. firms can stay in the competition. Now, U.S.

A subsidiary of Irvine-based Ultrasystems has been awarded a $10-million contract to design and build a coal terminal in Wasco. The terminal will service three coal-fired power plants in Bakersfield. The contract was awarded by Savage Coal Service, Salt Lake City, to Ultrasystems Western Contractors.

A dirty brown haze sometimes more than a mile thick is darkening skies over vast areas of Asia and in the Middle East, southern Africa and the Amazon Basin, changing weather patterns and threatening health and food supplies, the United Nations reported. The so-called atmospheric brown clouds are a mix of particles, ozone and other chemicals that come from cars, coal-fired power plants, burning fields and wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. A report commissioned by the U.N. Environment Program said the clouds dim light by as much as 25% in some cities, including Karachi, Pakistan; New Delhi; Shanghai; and Beijing.

The chairman of the Sierra Club, one of the nation's most influential environmental groups, has stepped down amid discontent that the group founded by 19th century wilderness evangelist John Muir has strayed from its core principles. The departure of Carl Pope, 66, a member of the club for more than 40 years, comes as the nonprofit group faces declining membership, internal dissent, well-organized opponents, a weak economy and forces in Congress trying to take the teeth out of environmental regulations.

Three Wall Street banks said Monday that they would set standards for factoring in environmental risks posed by carbon emissions when lending to companies that seek to build coal-fired power plants. Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley will form "The Carbon Principles," climate-change guidelines for advisors and lenders to power companies in the U.S.

In a venture expected to generate $1 billion in sales in three to five years, Fluor Corp. announced Wednesday that it is joining with a North Carolina utility to build coal-fired power plants. Fluor Daniel Corp., the chief operating affiliate of the Irvine-based heavy engineering and construction firm, said it has formed an equal joint venture with Duke Power Co. of Charlotte, N.C., to design and build coal plants for public utilities and other customers.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa drew cheers from environmentalists just over two months ago when he issued a new political promise: eliminating coal from the Department of Water and Power's fuel mix by 2020. Instead of waiting a decade to see if that promise comes true, a Sacramento-based advocacy group decided to stage a publicity campaign thanking the mayor. It bought advertising space on city bus kiosks showing a smiling picture of Villaraigosa and the word "Successful."

The fight over global warming and whether to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants must be resolved by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court said, killing a suit in federal court brought against the nation's five largest electric power companies. The 8-0 decision Monday was a setback — but not a surprise — for environmentalists. The outcome puts more pressure on the Obama administration and the EPA to follow through with promises to propose new regulations in the fall that will restrict carbon pollution from power plants.

In a setback for environmentalists, the Supreme Court signaled Tuesday that it would throw out a huge global warming lawsuit brought by California and five other states that seeks limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants in the South and Midwest. Encouraged by the Obama administration's top courtroom lawyer, the justices said the problem of regulating greenhouse gases should be left to the Environmental Protection Agency. It is too complex and unwieldy to be handled by a single federal judge acting on a "public nuisance" lawsuit, some of them said.

The damage caused by mercury in our air and water is no secret. The neurotoxin is especially dangerous to young children and developing fetuses, and is so pervasive that pregnant women are warned to limit the amount of swordfish and albacore tuna they eat. (The mercury levels in these and certain other fish are particularly high.) It's also no secret where most of the mercury released into the environment comes from: coal-fired power plants. Yet this country has been waiting nearly two decades for the Environmental Protection Agency to propose regulations for reducing mercury emissions.

The Supreme Court announced Monday it would hear two major appeals from corporate America that seek to block mass lawsuits, one involving a huge sex bias claim against Wal-Mart and the other a massive environmental suit that aims to hold coal-fired power plants responsible for contributing to global warming. In both cases, the justices agreed to consider stopping the suits before they could move toward a trial. The move is only the latest sign that the court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is inclined to rein in big-money lawsuits against businesses.

Environmentalists say they are surprised and disappointed that the Obama administration is urging the Supreme Court to kill a major global warming lawsuit that seeks new limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. At issue is a deep dispute over how best to fight climate change: through new government rules only or through lawsuits against polluters. Though the administration seeks new limits on carbon pollution from Congress or through the Environmental Protection Agency, it says courts should step aside.

America's headlong rush to tap its enormous coal reserves for electricity has slowed abruptly, with more than 50 proposed coal-fired power plants in 20 states canceled or delayed in 2007 because of concerns about climate change, construction costs and transportation problems. Coal, touted as cheap and plentiful, has been a cornerstone of President Bush's plans to meet America's energy needs with dozens of new power plants.

It puts out as much energy as Hoover Dam, lights up more than 1 million homes in California and two other states and represents the largest source of private income for the Hopi and Navajo Nations of Arizona and New Mexico. But the Mohave Generating Station is also a giant polluter. Towering over the Colorado River in Laughlin, Nev.

The Environmental Protection Agency would require oil- and coal-burning power plants to dramatically reduce hazardous air pollution under an agreement announced Friday that ends a long-standing lawsuit filed by environmentalists. The agreement -- which would probably boost electricity prices but could potentially save thousands of lives -- commits the EPA to set pollution standards by 2011 for the power plants that are responsible for nearly half of all emissions of mercury, which can harm brain development in fetuses and children.