Our Economy: The Coal Rush

Less than 5 years ago, the nation’s utilities were pushing plans for more than 150 coal plants. They said we were running out of power and coal was the only way to meet our need for energy. The Coal Rush had begun.

Yet by the end of last year, only a few plants had been built and more than 70 had been cancelled. In 2009, the number of cancellations continues to mount. Now, as new economic realities become apparent more plants are being cancelled than new plants are being announced.

Like the “bubbles” in the technology sector in the 1990s and the real estate sector in this decade, the momentum to build coal plants has burst. The coal boom is becoming a bust.

In the majority of these cases, these plants were cancelled by the utilities themselves.

In South Carolina, every utility – except Santee Cooper – has sworn off new coal in S.C. They, and their shareholders, know that the price of coal power is too high and fraught with huge risk. SCE&G has said that coal is “off the table.” Progress Energy has put a moratorium on new coal plant construction. Duke Energy has vowed to never again build a coal plant in the Carolinas.

Santee Cooper is alone in pushing coal in South Carolina. Our state utility is simply behind the times.