Another One Bites the (Coal) Dust

The coal industry just lost another one. Alliant Energy announced it is canceling a proposed $1.8 billion power plant in Marshalltown, Iowa. Despite new publicity campaigns from groups like the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity and America’s Power, the Iowa project is the 94th proposed coal plant defeated in the past two years, according to Mary Ann Hitt, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s National Coal Campaign.

Alliant’s statement seems to recognize the new political realities of coal in the age of acknowleding climate change, citing as the reason for the cancellation:

[A] combination of factors including the current economic and financial climate, increasing environmental, legislative and regulatory uncertainty regarding regulation of future greenhouse gas emissions and the terms placed on the proposed power plant by regulators.

Mary McBee, an Iowan who lives within 15 minutes of the proposed site in western Iowa, told my colleague Lynda Waddington of The Iowa Independent, that “they really do seem to get that they are going to have to go towards renewables and energy efficiency, if they want to get the support of Iowans.”

There are another 120 proposed coal-filed power plants around the country but they are facing mounting opposition. For example, last month Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm issued an executive ordering forcing state officials to review the need for new electricity production prior to issuing permits for new coal plants and to examine more environmentally friendly options. The order directly affects the six proposed coal-fired plants now on the drawing board in in Michigan.