Colorado could get left in the dust – the coal dust – now that Wyoming and California have inked a deal that could put the first high-tech, high-altitude clean coal plant in the Cowboy State.
Meanwhile, the Colorado legislature has yet to pass a measure, House Bill 1281, that would lead to building the first such clean coal plant in our state, using fuel from any of our state’s 11 operating coal mines.
California wants to reduce its dependency on traditional fossil fuels and so is buying more renewable energy. But since the Golden State gets much of its power from the interior West, coal could be part of the mix if new, clean technologies work at high altitude and with Western coal. One such technology, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), eliminates almost all air pollution and can be made to even get rid of carbon dioxide emissions.
The most important outcome for our region – and the country, frankly – is that an IGCC plant gets built somewhere in the West. But it would be a bonus for Colorado if it could build the first one.
The 2005 federal energy bill included money to jump-start research on whether IGCC can be used at high altitudes and using Western coal. Federal funds may be necessary to make the project financially feasible, but there’s enough money for only one project. Wyoming now has the edge.
The clean coal pact it recently signed is an offshoot of another agreement to build the Frontier Line, a major new transmission system linking Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. The four states’ governors and six public utilities serving the West Coast and intermountain region agreed to put on paper a detailed feasibility study and conceptual plan for the line.
One unsettled question is whether the Frontier Line will have the capacity to carry power not just from coal-fired plants, but also from several solar and wind energy projects on the drawing board in the region. The governors should make sure that it can.
Separately, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed another deal, calling for California to help Wyoming get federal funds for an IGCC plant. Now it won’t just be Wyoming saying that the logical place to build the pilot project is in the state that mines the most coal. (Wyoming produces more coal than Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania combined.) California, which has the biggest delegation in Congress, also wants Wyoming to get the IGCC plant.
Importantly, the agreement specifically says Wyoming’s IGCC project must use technologies that prevent carbon dioxide emissions. If the process works, coal could become part of the answer to global warming, not a cause of the problem.
The Wyoming-California deal thus could signal a profound and welcomed shift away from traditional, polluting energy use and toward a clean energy future. If so, all Westerners should tip the old Stetson to Freudenthal, a moderate Democrat, and to Schwarzenegger, one of the Republicans’ best environmental leaders.
It’s just too bad that Colorado’s politicians weren’t quite as quick on the draw.
