Washington state regulators killed plans for a coal fired power plant to be located in southwestern Washington in spite of the plant using a gasification process to burn the coal and remove emission hazards. Seems it doesn't matter how clean the output, if any part of the process involves coal it is in conflict with Washington state laws regarding power generation that restrict the use of coal. The emissions from the gasification process would have been very similar to burning natural gas but the "C" word killed the deal. Proponants of the plant may resubmit plans using a plant that would burn Canadian natural gas, but proponants of two other plants, one in Western Washington and one in Eastern Washington say those plans are dead. In response, a BNSF traffic manager, speaking to a shippers group, stated that plans to expand capacity in the Northwest are likely to be put on hold, citing the failure of the power plants and several proposed laws currently before lawmakers in Olympia (A proposed BTU tax on all forms of energy, regulations forcing the use of carbon credits and carbon trading for all energy consumers, and a proposed 10 cent per gallon fuel tax that would go up 10 cents annually, plus proposed restrictions on shipping traffic on the Puget Sound as part of a Sound clean up deal.) "Facing all of these challenges, plus a good likelyhood of reregulation on the federal level makes it risky to take on many large capacity expansion projects until we better know the outcomes and impacts."
Western Ag Radio Network. 1/17/08