I was invited to speak on the Mcilvaine Hot Topic Webcast: Greenhouse Gas Strategies for Coal-fired Plant Operators this Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 10:00AM/CST. 

The webcast “Greenhouse Gas Strategies for Coal-fired Plant Operators” will address the current state of development, the economics, the potential GHG reductions achievable, and the advantages or disadvantages of the various options that operators of coal fired power plants have to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of coal.

I will discuss the role of optimization software in improving power plant efficiency and thereby reducing the amount of fuel...
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My January 12 blog post talked about the US EPA’s increasingly aggressive stance on power plant NOx and particulate emissions, as evidenced by their recent proposal for new lower ground-level ozone limits, and by the upcoming April 2010 deadline for PM 2.5 compliance.  These moves could put hundreds of additional counties nationwide in violation and require state and local officials to find ways to clamp down on pollution or else be penalized. And compliance won’t be cheap -- the EPA's estimates for the incremental costs associated with the additional reduction in ground-level ozone limits range as high as $90 billion dollars! 

Another hit came on January 25, when Westar Energy agreed to pay a $3...
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In reading the recent Utilipoint article on “What’s next for Greenhouse Gas”, I would have to say I agree with most of it. Noteworthy is that the US EPA's top two priorities are climate change and air emissions, a reminder of the central role the power generation industry plays in some of the most important public policy issues facing our Nation today.  I suspect, however, that the article may have been written before the most recent indications of how seriously the industry, the Obama Administration, and the US Senate are taking the need to get bi-partisan energy legislation passed this year.  Check out, for example, the front page of the Boston...
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Keeping up with developments in the bewildering array of emissions regulations facing our industry is always challenging.  I was reminded of that last week when caught surprised by the US EPA's announcement proposing a  new lower limit for ground-level ozone, a main component of smog, of between 60 and 70 parts per million (ppm).

These rules could more than double the number of counties across the country that are in violation of clean air standards and bring NOx regulation to places such as Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, the Dakotas, Kansas, Minnesota and Iowa that have thus far avoided much of the NOx regulations implemented over the last decade east of the Mississippi.

My most recent efforts to follow developments in federal NOx regulation had focused on how EPA is...
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