Oklahoma could benefit economically from the Environmental Protection Agency’s clean power plan that was announced Aug. 3.
The question is whether or not the state’s political leaders will embrace the opportunities or fight the federal mandates that go into full effect in 2030.
Gary D. Allison stepped out of role as Director of Sustainable Energy Resources Law at University of Tulsa College of Law as he reflected on the EPA rules.
He also made it very clear the opinions he expressed were only his and did not reflect those of the University of Tulsa or the TU College of Law.
“I have strong views that may be compatible with others in the state,” Allison said. “Oklahoma should not have great difficulty meeting the guidelines because ‘we have great sun (solar) and wind resources (wind power).”
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This is an opportunity to displace coal-fired plants with natural gas facilities because the state also is a leader in natural gas production.
“It always has seemed strange to me the state politicians seem to have such a fondness for coal, to put it bluntly,” he said. “We don’t produce that much coal here.”
Changes are ahead for the displacement of the coal fired power plants even if the rules weren’t in place, Allison continued. The displacement has been occurring pretty rapidly. The abundance of natural gas has resulted in natural gas being adopted more rapidly as new power plants come on line.
Interstate power markets are moving away from the regulatory to the open market approach and it is being shown that natural gas plants have the lowest operating costs.
Hard-nosed business decisions alone show that operating costs have been harmful to anyone wanting to build a new coal-fired or nuclear plant, he said. Wind and natural gas have provided the bulk of the new power generation capacity over the past 10 years. Many people looking forward to the building of new electric generating plants weren’t looking at coal-fired plants anyway.
Natural gas plants will be available and the dramatic reduction of renewable energy costs, wind and solar power, have gone down significantly because of the economy of scale. The more these are adopted, the lower the costs.
Oklahoma’s coal-fired plants are about 43 years old and some consider them at the end of their useful life, Allison said.
“For the life of me, I do not understand why our state politicians clamor for preserving the lives of these plants going forward. The origin of the plan is the desire of the Obama Administration to do something to mitigate climate change and the inability of Congress to act on the issue.”
The world is at a point where time is rapidly running out to prevent big catastrophes past 2050.
Some people might not be concerned because they know they won’t live that long, he said. But they should be concerned about the lives of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, some of whom might live towards the end of this century.
The anticipation of the plan is that by reducing carbon dioxide, it also will reduce other pollutants, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides and particular matters that affect people’s health.
The EPA study shows that each year at least 3,600 premature deaths could be prevented; 1,700 heart attacks, and 90,000 asthma attacks could be avoided. Just as significantly, 300,000 missed work days and school days will be avoided, and these are just estimates if the plan is fully implemented.
The study projects pollution reductions to the climate would be $20 billion while health benefits would range between $14 to $34 billion and the net overall benefits would vary between $26 to $45 billion.The estimated cost to implement the plan is $8 billion.
Allison restated his position noting that Oklahoma “would benefit greatly by not fighting the plan and aggressively moving forward with it.
“We will stimulate jobs and advance the wind industry where we are a leader. There are no jobs in coal production in this state. We will stimulate a significant advance in the merging solar industry and we have the sunlight resources to make that work. The new battery technology that is being developed will make these resources more efficient and reliable. We will be able to take advantage of the power we produce when the sun goes down and the wind doesn’t blow,” he said.
Allison says the state will also be able to take full advantage of the its natural gas resources and get value added by converting it into electricity rather than shipping it somewhere and someone else gaining value added for their technology.
