Today's front page Wall Street Journal Story reports that 258 natural gas power plants were under construction as of December 2010 and states the rise of gas unplugged another wave of new nuclear plants. True enough.
The article, however, does not say it, but the 258 new gas plants that will come on line around the country from 2011 to 2015 are another huge reason why the EPA Air Toxic Rule and Cross State Air Pollution Rule do not pose a broad threat to grid reliability. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2859713/posts.
The Republican Congressional attacks on both rules focus on the plants that will retire from 2011 to 2015 but consistently ignore the new plants that are under construction that will substantially take the place of those plants that are retiring. These attacks have gone so far to say the lights will go out. Take a look at page 10 of the WSJ and the map there, detailing the location of the 258 gas plants under construction to see why the charge that the lights will go out is demonstrably false.
The nation is retiring plants that are more than 40 years old and pollute heavily, with modern, new plants that often are fueled by gas and that pollute often 95% less. The lights will stay on and the air will be cleaner as a result.
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