Los Angeles kicks the coal habit
The city of L.A. announces plans to go coal-free by 2020, causing a new plant to be scrapped.
Wed, Jul 15 2009 at 6:08 PM EST
Photo: Scutter/Flickr On July 4th weekend, Los Angeles declared its independence from coal.
Mayor Villaraigosa's announcement had a direct impact upon the utility IPA (Intermountain Power Agency) which supplies the Los Angeles basin with a large percentage of its power.
According to the New York Times, IPA immediately scrapped plans for a new 900 megawatt coal-fired plant in Utah.
IPA spokesperson John Ward stated, "We were in a permitting and preliminary planning stage, and some of the expected partners determined that it wasn't going to match up with their resource objectives."
Los Angeles purchases a full 45 percent of IPA's power, and it is anticipated that IPA will be looking into alternatives to supply energy to one of its biggest customers.
The Sierra Club has been working hard over the past two years to raise awareness of the many health and environmental impacts associated with coal plants and to stop as many proposed plants as they can. The proposed IPA plant marks the 100th such plant that has had its plug pulled. A sign of coming hard times for the coal industry?
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Comments
coalportal
10/21/2011 04:05 AM
The use of sophisticated software systems for coal mining that is mostly burnt for power generation and steel production and adds to the greenhouse effect is valid for western countries who may allocate resources and funds to alternative and more greener sources of power. Some of the alternatives may be "safer" than the traditional mines. Unfortunately, coal statistics show developing economies are more likely to increase their use of thermal coal & metallurgical coal in coming years.... More
JB @ iCEL
07/21/2009 19:41 PM
That's incredible! Hopefully IPA will consider solar and wind with quality the highest quality energy storage to advance the utility into the 21st century energy market with.
