A Greener City: Powering the future

“People think it (power) comes for the socket, like they think milk comes from the grocery shelf,” Arroyo said. “There are no perfect sources of energy. There are tradeoffs from all of these things.”

Global problem — local consequences

When it comes to global warming, few sources are vilified more than coal power plants.

Coal creates about twice the carbon dioxide for the amount of energy produced as natural gas, and about 30 percent more than petroleum. Largely because of coal, the country’s power plants produce most of the nation’s carbon dioxide, eclipsing the amount emitted by millions of cars, trucks and planes.

Most experts expect Congress to pass some kind of legislation to limit carbon dioxide emissions in the next couple years. Both presidential candidates support such a plan. The most likely scenario: a cap-and-trade system that will place a national limit on carbon dioxide and require companies to buy and sell allowances for polluting.

Prices of anywhere from a few dollars a ton to $70 or more have been floated. The difference could mean tens, or even hundreds, of millions of dollars a year in added costs for a utility like CPS Energy and its customers.

When the new coal plant — Spruce 2 — is on line, the carbon dioxide released from all CPS Energy plants will be more than 20 million tons year. “My recommendation would be they start figuring out a plan to start decreasing their reliance on coal, not increase it,” said David Schlissel of Synapse Energy Economics.” At some point they are going to have to pay and rates are going to go up a lot.”

One scenario is a climate change bill that would immediately charge a fee for every ton of carbon dioxide put out. CPS Energy has forecast a fee of $14a ton. At that rate, CPS Energy would have to pay nearly $300 million a year.

But Kotara, who said CPS Energy is keeping a close eye on the issue, doesn’t believe that will happen. He’s not looking for “a sudden jolt to electric prices,” but more of a gradual impact as new laws are phased in. Most experts agree.