Coal is King? EIA says the answer is yes but with some key caveats.
Last week the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Annual Energy Outlook for 2011. The report projected that by 2035 coal will continue to constitute the largest share of electricity generation in the U.S. Despite EIA predicting that few new coal-fired power plants will come online over the next 25 years, coal’s share of the electricity market will only decline from its current share of 45% to 43%.
Continue Reading...AEP v. Connecticut
The US Supreme Court heard oral argument in the AEP v. Connecticut case on April 19, 2010, and a ruling is expected by the end of the June. In this case, in which a coalition of state attorneys general sued electric power producers to cap and then reduce their carbon emissions, the high court agreed to consider three questions: whether the state respondents have standing to bring the case, whether the case should be dismissed because it raises non-justiciable “political questions,” and whether EPA climate rules displace respondents’ federal common law nuisance claims. Opponents of the suit have noted that the best result would be for the court to reject the case on standing grounds, because if the case falls for other reasons it would have less of an impact on other pending climate nuisance cases or any future environmental tort cases. Proponents of the suit have stated that the best their side could hope for is a 4-4 split that allows the case to proceed. To the extent that the court's questions can be relied upon to predict the eventual decision, neither of these outcomes seems likely. The caveat here, of course, is that sometimes the court's questions reflect where the court is heading, whereas other times they are indicative of the court's need for additional information.
