May 30 Environment AEP to Reconsider Alternatives to Coal at Eastern Kentucky Plant American Electric Power may have changed its mind about the future of the coal-fired Big Sandy Power Plant in Eastern Kentucky. The company has an application pending with the Kentucky Public Service Commission to install pollution controls at the plant to continue burning coal. But WFPL has learned that AEP filed to withdraw the application […] By Erica Peterson May 30 Environment AEP to Reconsider Alternatives to Coal at Eastern Kentucky Plant Erica Peterson
Mar 14 Environment Environmental Groups Say Burning Coal at Big Sandy Isn’t Least-Cost Option Two environmental groups are contesting an application filed with the Public Service Commission by an eastern Kentucky power company. They say retrofitting the Big Sandy power plant to continue burning coal will be more expensive than the company reported. In December, Kentucky Power filed an application with the Public Service Commission to spend $940 million […] By Erica Peterson Mar 14 Environment Environmental Groups Say Burning Coal at Big Sandy Isn’t Least-Cost Option Erica Peterson
Aug 4 Environment New EPA Proposal Encourages Carbon Capture and Sequestration The Environmental Protection Agency says injecting carbon dioxide underground doesn’t pose substantial environmental or health risks. The agency is proposing a rule to classify carbon dioxide as a non-hazardous waste and encourage a controversial coal technology. Carbon capture and sequestration—or CCS—is a process where carbon dioxide is removed from the emissions of coal-fired power plants […] By Erica Peterson Aug 4 Environment New EPA Proposal Encourages Carbon Capture and Sequestration Erica Peterson
Jul 14 Environment American Electric Power Will Stop Research on Carbon Capture at W.Va. Plant For the past few years, American Electric Power has been working on a carbon capture and sequestration project at their Mountaineer Power Plant in New Haven, West Virginia. The plant used a chilled ammonia process to remove the carbon dioxide from the gas emitted from the plant, then the carbon was injected underground for storage […] By Erica Peterson Jul 14 Environment American Electric Power Will Stop Research on Carbon Capture at W.Va. Plant Erica Peterson
Nov 3 Environment Carbon Capture Tech Makes Progress, But Enough? Today (TUESDAY), the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a mark-up session on the Senate climate change bill. Its passage is still uncertain at the moment, but one provision aims to establish widespread, commercial-scale carbon dioxide capture and storage from coal-fired power plants. The technology isn’t entirely out of the laboratory yet, but researchers and industry partners in the Ohio River Valley are working to get it there—regardless of what happens on Capitol Hill. WFPL’s Kristin Espeland Gourlay has the second of our two-part series. By Kristin Espeland Nov 3 Environment Carbon Capture Tech Makes Progress, But Enough? Kristin Espeland
Nov 2 Environment World's First Carbon Capture & Storage, On the Ohio The U.S. Senate has begun hearings on its version of a climate change bill, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. If passed, it could require a 65 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions—namely carbon dioxide--from the nation’s existing coal-fired power plants by the year 2020. Some high profile lobbying groups are fighting the bill, but some of the biggest emitters aren’t. In the first of this two-part series on carbon capture and storage, we visit an Ohio River Valley power plant that's flipped the switch on a world first. By Kristin Espeland Nov 2 Environment World's First Carbon Capture & Storage, On the Ohio Kristin Espeland