Jason Hayes

Jason Hayes is the Communications Director of the American Coal Council.

Coal Plant Cancellations
In an article in an early 2008 edition of the ACC's magazine, Hayes complained that "regulators, however, are still listening to environmental groups and pressuring utilities to drop or postpone their plans for building coal fueled generation stations." Since the ealry 2000's, he wrote, "coal has been assaulted by climate change concerns and changing political climates. As a result, 54 percent of all coal plants ordered since 2000 have had their permits denied or postponed."

"In one case last year, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Roderick Bremby, denied an expansion permit for an existing coal plant solely because of CO2 emissions. In his ruling, Bremby argued that he “(believed) it would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change.” Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, recently vetoed a state bill that would have allowed the coal plant expansion to go forward by removing the power of the KDHE to make this type of broad ruling," he wrote. "In response to proposed carbon restrictions, four major U.S. banks recently stated they would inject a cost of carbon-dioxide emissions premium into any decisions they make on financing power projects. A February Wall Street Journal article belabored the obvious by reporting that 'this will make them less likely to underwrite financing on conventional coal-fi red power plants'."

"All of these factors," he wrote, "are dulling utility and investor desire to propose new coal-fueled power. Many are treading water right now, holding off on new plants and promoting conservation programs among their customers. At best, this is a stopgap measure as demand for energy continues to grow."

Contact Details
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