|
Cough! Wheeze !! Coal burning power plants have been
part of the industrial revolution. In Texas we have a law passed that addresses
the issue of coal fired electric generating plant. It is called " stranded
costs".
The scenario goes thus.. the electric power producers
complained to the state regs they couldn't afford to clean up their air at the
price the state permitted them to charge for electric power. The producers
agreed they would spend the money IF the state would allow them to recover the
costs via temporary increases in billing. As no good deed ever goes unpunished,
the state agreed that if the producers had or recently purchased an old plant
that was grandfathered from pollution rules, they could write it off without
fixing it ( close it ). The deal considered the costs the power plant
owner was stuck with ( stranded with). Along with coal fired plants, the power
plant owners cried about nuke plants they were also stuck with, so the state
lumped them into the deal.
Now comes the games.. power producer # numero uno
recovers their stranded cost and sells the junk plant to power producer # dos..
who in turn cries fowl and gets to recover stranded costs .. and the games makes
the circle until Bush 2 allows that EPA regs are grossly overweighed against the
poor power producer which results in suspending certain air pollution mandates
for smoke stacks. The game of musical obsolete power plants continues to
the next buyer including the smoke to prove they are still
working.
Back to square one and the environmentalists are
squeeling like a pig caught under the gate.
Meanwhile , back at the ranch.. never let it be said
that innovation has ceased.. Our local Nuke plant was conceived and designed to
cost 1 bil, after the costs reached 3-4 ( who counts anymore) the contractor
threw in the towel and the big boys came in and finished it at.. lets say give
or take 5 bil. Sometimes later, someone in accounting noticed they were not
making a profit with the investment... soooo.. along comes who?
Mr stranded cost .of course!!!. BUT , and this is a very
big BUT.. it costs us 8 bil to build..and now we have ..lets see now.. around 11
bil invested .. so after the poker game, drinks and cigars , the price became
around 13- 15 bil the power producer could recover in stranded costs for the
plant.
There is a solution to cleaning up stack gas and coal
smoke... its called money. The technology exists.. the maintenance and waste
disposal is where the work starts.. but !! here that word again..
if they just dump it in the air.. the problem goes away because its
somebody else's problem. That is not capitalism.. thats greed taught in MBA
programs.
Richard * gasp*
|
<<Blank Bkgrd.gif>>
