Coal news and updates

When the temperature here dropped into the teens this winter, ice formed on the inside of Ernestine J. Cundiff’s windows in the drafty 50-year-old apartment building where she lives. At 81, with diabetes, poor circulation in her legs and both shoulders damaged in separate falls last year, Ms. Cundiff said wearing leggings and fur-lined slippers was not enough to keep her warm, so she took to using an electric space heater in her bedroom.

 

Then came the electric bill, $96.75 in January, up about 50 percent from the previous month. That was in addition to a gas bill of $153.44, up from $106.12 the month before. “When I opened the bills, I thought I was going to have another heart attack,” said Ms. Cundiff, whose only income is the $1,226 a month she receives from Social Security.

 

Like many other people this winter, Ms. Cundiff turned to a community service organization. Impact Community Action, a Columbus agency, enrolled her in a state program that holds energy bills to 6 percent of a person’s income. Regina Clemons, the director of emergency assistance at Impact, said the group was on track to sign up 9,000 to 10,000 people this winter, compared with about 8,000 last winter.

“We find people who have never ever walked into a community action agency before, looking for help,” said Carmen Allen, the community outreach coordinator.

 

As the end of the harshest winter in recent memory approaches, the bill is coming due for millions of consumers who are not only using more electricity and natural gas but also paying more for whatever they use. And there might not be relief in future winters, as the coal-fired power plants that utilities have relied on to meet the surge in demand are shuttered for environmental reasons.

 

The sticker shock has been particularly acute in the Northeast, where natural gas supplies have been constrained. But it has spread to other regions of the country, including the Midwest, where utilities have had to draw on more expensive reserves to meet the demand.

 

In Pennsylvania, Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane said her office had been flooded with complaints from consumers whose utility bills had soared, in some cases tripling. In Rhode Island, the utility National Grid received permission for a 12.1 percent electricity rate increase in January, nearly all of it because of higher prices for the gas used to make electricity.

 

In New York, Con Edison increased the price of each kilowatt-hour about 16 percent this month compared to last year. And in Ohio, energy retailers will demand higher prices from customers like Ms. Cundiff when annual contracts are renewed.

 

Underlying the growing concern among consumers and regulators is a second phenomenon that could lead to even bigger price increases: Scores of old coal-fired power plants in the Midwest will close in the next year or so because of federal pollution rules intended to cut emissions of mercury, chlorine and other toxic pollutants. Still others could close because of a separate rule to prevent the damage that cooling water systems inflict on marine life.

 

For utilities, another frigid winter like this one could lead to a squeeze in supply, making it harder — and much more expensive — to supply power to consumers during periods of peak demand.

 

 

Source://www.nytimes.com/