Prospects for a continuing boom in coal-plant construction in the U.S., considered bright as recently as 2006, are suffocating in a cloud of carbon-dioxide emissions. With public, regulatory and lender concern growing, many proposed plants have been cancelled. Permits issued for others require offsets for their carbon emissions, while the ones that remain in permitting are being intensely challenged. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must regulate carbon-dioxide emissions under the Clean Air Act, the Supreme Court ruled last year, but Congress has failed to give EPA guidelines for a national policy. Three investment banks last month announced guidelines they would use to assess the risks of investment in coal-fired generation in the absence of a national policy. Further, the largest electric utility in Kansas, citing “seismic shifts in the assumptions shaping our industry,” issued a strategic plan that knocks the crown from King Coal’s head.
For construction contractors, the immediate situation is not dire. About 25 major coal projects totaling more than 15,000 MW now are under construction. Twenty other projects totaling more than 10,000 MW have secured most of their major permits and are poised to enter construction soon.