Coal is called crucial to U.S. energy needs - Industry groups hold Louisville conference

Louisville Courier Journal

Coal is indispensable to U.S. electric generation and will remain so for years to come but the power industry must tackle the problem of greenhouse-gas emissions and do a better job of explaining that coal can be a clean fuel.

That was the message delivered by several speakers in the keynote session of Coal-Gen 08, which convened yesterday at the Kentucky International Convention Center.

Sponsored by Louisville-based E.On U.S. and such industry groups as the American Public Power Association and the United States Energy Association, the meeting is expected to draw about 4,000 visitors for its three-day run.

The keynote session included a heavy representation of speakers from Kentucky, one of the top three coal-producing states.

"Coal is crucial to America's energy needs," said Len Peters, secretary of Kentucky's Energy and Environment Cabinet, who noted that 92 percent of the state's electricity is generated by coal-fired plants. "Admittedly, we have to develop cleaner technology," he said, but "whether you're from Kentucky or California or Massachusetts, coal is integral to what we need to do."

E.On U.S., parent company of Louisville Gas and Electric Co. and Kentucky Utilities, depends even more heavily on coal, said Vic Staffieri, its chairman, chief executive and president. The two utilities, which serve more than 1 million customers in Kentucky and Virginia, burn 21 million tons a year, generating 97 percent of their electricity from coal, he said. More important, Staffieri said, "half the generation in the United States will continue to be from coal."

Globally, about 40 percent of the world's electricity is generated from coal, said Paul Thompson, E.On senior vice president of energy services. Coal "has to be an important fuel for the future," he said.

But coal-powered generation must deal with "the 800-pound gorilla -- and that's climate change," said Steve Miller, president and CEO of the Virginia-based American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

Miller, who grew up in Owenton, Ky., said the coalition "believes in the use of all our domestic energy sources." But the group also supports efforts to capture and store carbon dioxide before it is emitted as a greenhouse gas, he said.

E.On's "view is that there needs to be a national greenhouse-gas emissions policy, but one that is gradual and rational," Staffieri said.

There's no commercially viable technology today to deal with carbon emissions, though some experts say it will be developed by 2020, Thompson said.

Several speakers said the coal industry needs to do a better job of getting its message to a public who may not be aware of advances made in pollution controls.

"It doesn't matter what you build, someone will be opposed to it," said Frank Maisano, a principal with energy firm Bracewell & Giuliani. He encouraged those in the coal industry to "engage the mistruths" that might be spread about projects and to highlight their benefits to communities.