Coal power and coastal flooding

in Technical Issues by Admin — February 16, 2009 at 9:51 am | 2 comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The release of new FEMA flood risk maps for 15 coastal Parishes in Louisiana is a pointed reminder to residents south of I-10 to pay attention to creeping inundation as the gulf moves further inland.

Residents of south Louisiana are the most vulnerable Americans to accelerated sea level rise.  Nevertheless there remains a curious and stubborn indifference on the part of many Louisianans, including elected officials, to one of the two primary causes* of this phenomenon – a warming planet. The acceleration of sea level rise is caused by thermal expansion of the world ocean as well as melting continental ice sheets, such as in Greenland and western Antarctica.

Thus an interesting article on the future of coal-generated electricity in yesterday’s NY Times should be of interest to both our politicians and our utility heads.  Utility company executives face the dilemma of deciding whether or not to expand their coal-fired electrical generating capacity in the near future.  If the Obama administration is successful in implementing a “cap-and-trade” system to reduce carbon emissions, the profitability of coal-fired plants will shrink dramatically.  

Mr. J. Wayne Leonard, Chairman of the Board of Entergy and well-known New Orleans figure, is on the record as supporting a cap-and-trade carbon system.  On the other hand Mr. Leonard is not a proponent of a rapid conversion to a pure renewable system.  He advocates using natural gas fueled electrical generation as a bridge towrd the gradual conversion to renewable electricity.   Given this fact it seems paradoxical that Entergy is now planning the conversion of the Little Gypsy power plant west of New Orleans to a coal-fired plant.

I remember listening in on an interesting conversation in 1996 between former governor Mike Foster and Don Boesch, well known coastal scientist, climate change authority and former Louisiana resident.  This happened during a memorable coastal summit at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.  At that time the governor was skeptical about climate change, or at least the human component of the  problem, but he listened very carefully to Don’s arguments. 

Now, 12 years later, the evidence for human-induced climate change and accelerated sea level rise, is so overwhelming that it’s hard to comprehend the fact that so many are still in denial.

While this discussion continues, the problem is apparently getting worse.

*The other is deltaic subsidence.