You know, back during the controversy, when everyone else seemed to know exactly what they thought on the subject, I never was sure whether I favored Santee Cooper building the proposed coal plant in the Pee Dee or not.
The arguments against were fairly strong-sounding, but they never fully answered the question of where the power would come from instead. I would have found the arguers more persuasive if they had said we need to expedite nuclear plants. But they said too often that we could do away with the need via conservation. I’m all for conservation, but that’s a solution that makes more sense if you’re not planning on growing your economy. And in South Carolina, we need to grow our economy.
Now there’s an answer to where the power will come from — Duke Energy. And so now even the former advocates are saying “never mind,” which makes sense:
PINOPOLIS – Santee Cooper will not pursue construction of a controversial coal-fired power plant that has drawn intense opposition from environmentalists over the amount of mercury and greenhouse gas pollution the facility would release.
The board of directors of the state-owned utility voted unanimously today to suspend an effort to secure state permits for the $2.2 billion plant in Florence County along the Great Pee Dee River. The board’s vote followed a similar vote this morning during a board committee meeting.
The agency’s action makes it unlikely the plant will ever be built, said Santee Cooper board chairman O.L. Thompson.
Committee members and Santee Cooper staff said the down economy, looming federal regulation of carbon and a potential agreement with another power company made it possible to forgo building the power plant.
So I don’t have to struggle to make up my mind about it any more. That’s good.
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Off topic: Doug, the former Rich 1 superintendent Epps is being inducted into the R1 Hall of Fame. The one stat The State cites for this is the fact that he oversaw the passage of the largest single bond in state history.
http://www.thestate.com/breaking/story/914206.html
I remember once in R1 that the DO put out a letter to all 3000ish employees listing our professional development days. There were three sheets of papers in the envelope mailed to us: 1 showing a calendar of July with “PD” listed in three days and the rest of the month was blank. 1 showing August with 3 days listed with “PD” and the rest blank. Same for September.
The expense for this wasn’t dramatic but the sheer lack of concern for waste made me wonder what other wasteful efforts were being committed.
It’s no better in CT.
Glad you are feeling well enough to blog. Your illness was noted at Rotary.
We can’t grow our economy with Sanford dragging his feet at the helm.
Thanks. Yeah, I picked a bad day to get a stomach bug, since I was supposed to do Health & Happiness. I’m better; even ate some supper, although the verdict is not yet in on whether that was wise.
During the election, Barack Obama promised to shut down the coal industry.
In the climate of hostility to profits, and irrational superstitions about “greenhouse gasses” and “global warming”, Santee Cooper is wise to stop investing.
This is the beginning of a wave of businesses which will be scaling back. Radical Democrats continue to kill off the efforts of the private sector to recover from their meddling in mortgages and destroying the banks.
Can USC make personal hydrogen fuel cells for each and every one of us to run our homes (since the car idea is not too swift) so we can all get off the grid?
Lee, haven’t you seen any of those 200 million coal industry ads with a campaign clip of Obama saying that he doesn’t think there’s any reason why we can’t get clean energy out of coal? They seem to think he supports clean coal.
We already have clean coal. All the plants were upgraded to very strict emissions standards in 1992.
Those using coal to produce electricity know Obama is their enemy, but they are panicked into trying to play along, rather than call him out.
Obama, who is illiterate in science, was pandering to his ignorant followers. Since the SO2, NO, and other emissions were cleaned up in the 1970s, enemies of American prosperity have ginned up the phony issue of “global warming”, “climate change”, and “greenhouse gasses”.