Jim Dulzo: Wind Power Is Officially Cheaper

When one of George Bush’s federal agencies says that the price of new coal-fired power is higher than the price of wind power, you know the coal industry is in trouble.

A new slideshow by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which closely tracks energy prices, says that the costs of coal, of getting it from mine to power plant, and of the steel, cement, copper, and labor to build coal plants are rising rapidly and will continue to do so.

Then the slides connect the dots: Given new coal’s ballooning costs and the unknown price of upcoming CO2 regulations, investing in new coal plants is increasingly risky.

Slide 11 tells the story: Wind power is now a better bet.

FERC makes the same argument-and similar cost projections-that Tom Sanzillo, an investment banking and utility regulation veteran, made for electricity generated by Wolverine Power Cooperative’s proposed “Clean Energy Venture.” Mr. Sanzillo concluded that building two 300 MW coal- and petroleum coke-burning power plants next to Rogers City was a very risky idea that would more than double local electric rates.

When will Michigan’s political leaders get this? Governor Granholm refuses to talk about the eight new coal plants proposed for Michigan-other than claiming there’s nothing she can do. Lansing lawmakers water down or hamstring the renewable energy and energy efficiency proposals the governor touts, proposals that would create lots of jobs and save us some money.

And the same crowd, Ms. Granholm included, endorses protecting DTE Energy and Consumers Energy from customer competition, guaranteeing that innovative green-energy companies head for Ohio, Minnesota, or other Midwest states that already have smart energy policies.

When asked about Michigan’s coal rush recently, Bill McKibben, the noted climate change expert and author, whom the Michigan Land Use Institute presents on Sept. 7 in Traverse City, said it best in this his interview in Northern Express:

“Michigan, I’m afraid, is threatening to become the world leader in all kinds of dinosaur technologies. Right now, you’re leading in producing SUVs that no one wants to drive.

“The track record of Michigan dealing with technologies of the future is weak. It’s sad to watch Toyota and Honda eating the lunch of GM and Ford, who weren’t thinking about the future. The same is true of these coal-fired power plants. This is 18^th-century technology.

“It’s very clear the real action…is going to be wind and solar. Sticking yourselves with this kind of legacy is as stupid as the legacy of Ford Expeditions. …The one smart thing Detroit is talking about is building a new generation of hybrid cars. Chevy is supposed to bring out the Chevy Volt a year from now. I’ll run it off the sunlight on my roof, and I won’t need a gas station again.”

In an odd technological twist, it turns out that if Chevy (and Toyota and others) make plug-in hybrids work, they could provide the missing link between the intermittency of wind turbines and solar panels and our need for a steady, smooth power supply.

Or is that just too risky for Michigan’s Iron Age politicos?

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