The Boulder Clean Power Plan

I attended a climate meeting yesterday at the University of Colorado. They said that most people are already highly traumatized by climate change, and that only 100 wind turbines could provide all of Boulders’ energy needs – which are currently met by this ultra-clean coal/gas fired power plant that many residents probably aren’t even aware of.

CDMohlmWEAAXL-B

So, what they are proposing is this :

2016-02-28141658

Of course they can’t get rid of the other power plant, because this week the wind only blew for a few hours.

Screenshot 2016-02-27 at 08.52.00 AM

NCAR Foothills Lab Weather (english, weekly)

So basically what they want to do is spend huge amounts of money to destroy the environment – and accomplish essentially nothing. The climate of Boulder isn’t changing.

BOULDER_CO_AverageMeanTemperatureAnomaly_Jan_Dec_1950_2015

About Tony Heller

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46 Responses to The Boulder Clean Power Plan

  1. Jim Schmidt says:

    Facts are to the Globull Warming Gestapo as kryptonite is to Superman…

    • omanuel says:

      Two magic kryptonite bullets in science are:

      1. False pride, and
      2. Blind arrogance!

      The survival of society depends on successful evolution of mankind from instinctive self-survival to humanitarian survival of the group.

  2. Robertv says:

    They should not forget to build wind turbines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and close their power plants.

    http://earth.nullschool.net/#2016/02/14/0000Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=co2sc/patterson/loc=22.130,4.934

  3. Bob Greene says:

    How does one get highly traumatized by climate change?

  4. sfx2020 says:

    >The climate of Boulder isn’t changing.

    If you look at Boulder, for J-F, the temperature is going down, while the snowfall is going up.

    This is true for 1998-2015

    And it also shows up using 1950-2015

    I want to be able to plot November-February as well.

  5. sfx2020 says:

    Because Nov-Dec temps also show a decline, from 1950-2015

    I know this, because Pulling Back the Curtain shows this.

  6. gator69 says:

    I would have asked the presenter to please define “highly traumatized”. I’m guessing his definition and ours may differ slightly.

  7. kmbold says:

    “…(M)ost people” are so secularized in this age that they have no knowledge of God and His divine providence. The slightest threat, real or imagined, “traumatizes” their poor trembling hearts. I won’t expect any “humanitarian survival of the group” behavior because self-centeredness doesn’t allow for that. The virtue (habitual practice) of love of God and neighbor overcomes that, not some punctuated evolutionary leap.

  8. Everything is proceeding as foreseen.

    Many decades ago the city and county started buying up available land as Open Space and surrounded the city with an attractive green belt. They limited development inside the beltway through regulations. Property prices and taxes rose. People with money flocked to Boulder and displaced those on lower and fixed incomes. Prices rose further. The wealthier newcomers from California and New York didn’t mind and voted for expansion of taxes and services they liked in places left behind.

    Cost of living kept rising and displaced more original residents. All right-thinking people opposed Walmart coming to Boulder. Whole Foods was doing great and had to expand its footprint. Google decided to enlarge its presence in Boulder with a new campus in a “natural match made in Heaven”, as Gov. Hickenlooper called it. Prices and property value assessments keep on rising.

    The prosperous residents will make sure that Boulder’s municipal utility doesn’t spoil their views. Their municipal “renewable power” will be expensive and come from far-away facilities around less-progressive people’s places. The existing few NREL research park wind turbines at the south edge of Boulder will be enough to signal the town’s good will. Boulder prices, taxes and rates will keep rising.

    Aging Progressives will continue writing letters to The Daily Camera complaining about the result of the policies they’ve been supporting their entire lives. The Boulder City Council and the County Commissioners will hire more social engineers to keep solving the lack of social diversity they started solving decades ago. A black AWD Audi will remain the vehicle of choice for the most successful Progressives, followed by Prius and Subaru. Gasoline will keep coming from far-away facilities around less-progressive people’s places and the city will keep building the best bike trails around.

    Boulder will remain a very white and affluent Democratic town. The pot shops and dispensaries will do well. The residents will keep praising their progressive open mindedness and celebrate the community’s diversity. They will encourage each other to become even more progressive. Their good character will show in how much they’ll support the homeless shelter as long as the police can keep the vagrants under control. The Mexicans doing manual labor in and around the city will keep coming to work from places far away from Boulder. Every now and then, another poor old man in a trailer park will fall behind on taxes and lose his place to a Realtor who bought the tax lien from the county. All the right-thinking people will be upset by his “bad luck”.

    Good people will help him pack and move his belongings and all will be well.

    ——————–

    Many Boulder County taxpayers face higher price tags for government services
    Reappraised property values have soared from mid-2012
    By John Fryar
    Staff Writer

    Some Boulder County homeowners report experiencing the tax equivalent of sticker shock upon getting the annual property tax notices the county treasurer’s office mailed out in late January, particularly seniors who don’t yet satisfy the state’s conditions for claiming a partial tax exemption.

    http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_29569169/many-boulder-county-taxpayers-face-higher-price-tags
    ——————–

    ‘Something predatory?’: Boulder County agencies mobilize over mobile-home tax liens
    Four owners lost mobile homes this year for failing to pay liens less than $800
    By Mitchell Byars
    Staff Writer

    Alarmed by what he calls a “new phenomenon,” Boulder County’s treasurer is revamping the tax-lien notification letters that are sent to mobile-home owners to warn them that four county residents recently lost their homes for failing to pay liens that were less than $800.

    It’s one of the first concrete steps taken by county officials as they try to grapple with what they fear will become a new trend.

    Boulder County Treasurer Paul Weissmann met this week with members of the Boulder City Council, city and county housing officials, and even lawyers from the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office.

    Boulder City Councilwoman Lisa Morzel, who was at the meeting, said now that officials know this is happening to local mobile-home owners, they can work to be more pro-active.

    http://i66.tinypic.com/35bc9ao.jpg

    http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_29568702/something-predatory?:-boulder-county-agencies-mobilize-over-mobilehome-tax-liens

    • R. Shearer says:

      Is that Lisa Morzel on his shoulder?

      • I don’t see a broom in the picture but it’s possible. Same cranial volume.

        • RAH says:

          BTW CW yesterday at Edinburg, VA I backed into an inside dock designed for flat bed trailers. Those type of docks are like backing into a concrete slot. The floor of the facility would be level with the deck of the flat bed trailer so that trailer could be loaded from either side or the rear.

          It was so tight that you could not open the swing doors on the trailer until you were backed in to the dock. To allow for that the rear tandems went up a little ramp to raise the rear of the trailer high enough to allow the doors to open. Once the docked and the doors opened they raised the dock plate to the trailer height.

          The place was formally a warehouse for a John Mansville plant that had been turned into a grocery warehouse. They loaded the trailer with 28 CHEP pallets of Kroger Applesauce in jars totaling 45,282 lbs. I immediately drove 6 miles south to the nearest scale and found that though my gross weight was OK I was tail heavy so I had to go back and do it all again. They totally unloaded the trailer and then reloaded putting more of the weight on the nose of the trailer and when I scaled it again I was legal. But by that time I didn’t have the hours to make it home.

          I’ve backed into quite a few inside docks before. They’re pretty common, especially up north where the winters are tough. It takes getting used to because it’s like backing into a dark cave. This was the tightest one I can remember seeing anywhere. Had less than 3″ on each side from the concrete pit walls. Had to get out the passenger side door because my mirror on the drivers side was a 1/2″ from the overhead door frame once I was docked.

        • Man, you got a technical double workout at that dock. That’s like manually docking Atlantis at the space station. It’s a shame they didn’t load it right the first time. Did you make it down the road before taking your mandatory break? How much was the remainder of the haul after the break?

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwwE-m917CY

          Then again, I think you’d rather keep solving technical problems than the logistical challenges of these Russian truckers:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCuLCEv1a5M

        • RAH says:

          It was a long hard week CW. Anderson, IN to a Nestles facility near Allentown, PA. Took a 10 hour break. From there up to Tonawanda, NY on the near north side of Buffalo where they were behind schedule producing the high temp insulation for shielding auto exhaust systems I was picking up and didn’t get me loaded until over two hours after my appointment time. From there I was to go back to Anderson but when I was passing through Cleveland, OH I got a call. They had a “situation”. Hot load coming into the Romulus, MI terminal (By the airport in Detroit) that had to get down to the Tenneco/Walker plant in Harrisonburg, VA ASAP.

          So I went to Romulus and dropped my trailer for a Romulus driver to take it to Anderson. I took a 10 hour break and after I woke up I plotted my route to Harrisonburg based on the NWS radio and the accuweather forecast and radar on my smart phone. Going east as fast as possible was the way to beat the weather and so that is what I did. I hammered down I-275 to I-75 to I-280 to the I-80/I-90 toll road and got out in front of the weather. About the time I got to the Pittsburg area on I-76 it came over the radio that the Ohio toll road and I-280 was shut down for big trucks in the vicinity of Toledo due to high winds.

          Got off the PA turnpike on I-70 at Breezewood, PA and took that into MD where at the first exit I got off on US 522. In that approx six mile stretch one passes from PA to MD to WV . 522 takes you to US-37 which takes you to I-81 S and my stop was just off I-81 in Harrisonburg.

          Once unloaded I noticed the inside of the trailer was a mess and my QualCom showed I was to pick up a broker load of “grocery products” at Edinburg about 40 mi north of Harrisonburg on I-81. Tried to call the broker to get more specific info but they didn’t pick up. So I parked, got a shower, ate and went to sleep. Next morning with sunrise I swept out the trailer. Got 3 large plastic grocery bags full of filth out of it. Finally got a hold of the broker. He said they may be able to load me early so I didn’t have to wait until my 14:00 appointment time so I drove on up.

          Once I went through the weigh and reload and reweigh thing I didn’t have enough time left on my 14 hour clock to make it home. Despite being heavy I opted for the hillier southern route over I-64 to I-77 to US-37 to I-70 to get home. Hadn’t gone that way for a couple years and I think that Charleston, WV is a pretty town in the dark or day with the capital dome and the river and bridges. Took another 10 hour break in WV and then drove home this morning getting in at noon. So I left at 18:00 on Monday and didn’t get back until Noon on Saturday. Made an extra $460.00 above my salary doing it though.

        • That’s a hard drive and hard earned money, rah. Truckers are modern day cowboys.

        • Robertv says:

          Colorado not in Europe. Only few will stop to help a colleague. The clock doesn’t stop.

          http://www.ozkorkmaz.com.tr/images/Zsag.jpg

  9. AndyG55 says:

    I’m a bit worried about how you have put those wind turdines in the valley.

    They should all be jammed packed along the top of the ridges where everyone can see their beauty.

    • AndyG55 says:

      And of course a 4 lane dirt road sc raped though the terrain between them for construction and maintenance. Look to Vermont for the way it should be done.

  10. The US is responsible for 16% of the globe’s anthropogenic CO2 output. Fossil fired (not just coal, includes natural gas, oil is not used.) electric power generation is responsible for 31% of the US CO2 production. The goal of the Clean Power Plan is to reduce electric power generation’s CO2 output by 32%.

    16% * 31% * 32% = a 1.6% reduction in the globe’s anthropogenic CO2 output.

    Wow. Awesome. Makes one pause/hiatus/lull. Almost takes your breath away.

    BTW CPP says nothing about internal combustion engines or natural gas fired Rankine steam plants. And the EPAs goal of 1,305 lb CO2/MWh for coal steam is mathematically and thermodynamically impossible.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/climate-change
    http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/usinventoryreport.html

  11. ntesdorf says:

    On a day when there is little wind, not even 10,000 wind-turbines would do it for Boulder.

  12. SMS says:

    Years ago the CU logo was emblazoned on the Flatirons and could be seen from miles away. But the locals and vocal students found it “unnatural” and it had to be removed. Now, for some reason, wind turbines, which are more visual, are not considered “unnatural”

    • R. Shearer says:

      As I recall, some students from Oklahoma painted a white OU on one of the Flatirons the night before a football game. It was easy for some CU students to later change this to CU. Then the city decided to paint the whole thing over in a “natural” color to hide it. This took place over several years.

      • SMS says:

        I was attending CU when the CU logo on the Flatirons was vandalized by some low life Oklahoma fans. The following day CU’s football team beat the higher ranked Oklahoma football team. An act of “Just Deserts”. And later that week the C was reopened by painting over the offending line added by the low life Oklahoma fans.

        • SMS says:

          May be “Just Desserts” would have made more sense.

        • R. Shearer says:

          Thank you for the reminder. Here is the story from the Daily Camera. http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14073593

        • SMS says:

          Ummmmm! It appears the low life Oklahoma fans have been more involved in the vandalizing of the “C” than I first knew. My experience comes from the late 70’s. In addition to Oklahoma’s football team losing that day, the Sooner wagon tipped over on their turn around the south end of the field. “Just Desserts” I say. Ralphie may have even put the fear of god into the opposing players as “she” ran by.

          With all the PC behavior in Boulder it’s still a wonder that they allow Ralphie or Buffie to run the field. You would think someone would have deemed the spectacle animal cruelty and demanded a stop to the event. And then to satisfy the need for self flagellation by the self appointed holy priests of Boulder, all citizens would be required to pay additional taxes to offset the emotional healing needed to expunge the event. In addition, more money would pour into a fund to pay for the emotional distress suffered by Ralphie and Buffie. Law suits would probably follow to cover pain and suffering by all the Ralphies and Buffies abused in the past. The priests of Boulder would eventually decide that building 10,000 wind turbines would be a sufficient sacrifice to appease the green gods.

  13. stpaulchuck says:

    “because this week the wind only blew for a few hours.” but libs blow 24/7

  14. aeroguy48 says:

    Steve missed one windmill, right in the middle of the Football stadium.

  15. Dave1billion says:

    I’m a big fan of the free market in cases like this. Or at least as “free” as a regulated public utility can be.

    If 100 of these windmills could indeed “provide all of Boulder’s energy needs” I’m pretty sure that the utility companies would be putting them up without any prompting or government subsidies.

    But if you increase the cost of electrical production enough by regulating first coal power plants and then natural gas power plants out of existence then maybe wind will be profitable without subsidies.

    Of course, the poor guy that CW referred to who lives in a trailer won’t be able to afford his electricity and could lose his place. But that’s okay, because they can increase the taxes on other consumers to subsidize his electricity. If that puts another guy who lives in another trailer out on his ass then that’s the price to pay for doing the right thing.

  16. All you need to run Boulder off of wind turbines is a 130 MPH chinook winds… all day every day.

  17. Seeing that the Boulder Daily Chimera hasn’t gone out of business explains a lot. That is the most shockingly dishonest paper since Pravda.

  18. nutso fasst says:

    Was there no Q&A period where attendees could point out the stupidity of the proposal?

  19. Friday I sat in on a Clean Power Plan webinar hosted by Power Engineering magazine. (BTW I’ve worked in power generation for 35+ years and have actually downloaded and reviewed the reg.) The two CPP panelists were an environmentalist and a legal expert.
    If a Republican becomes president, CPP will simply be dismantled and tossed. If a Democrat becomes president, CPP still has to survive the legal challenges which the legal expert considers unlikely. If CPP does survive its schedule will be set back the time between the stay and the final ruling, at this time that appears to be at least two years, so:
    The states have until September, 2018 to submit their plans, NLT 2026 to initiate compliance, 2032 for the final ruling to take effect, breaking the 2030 COP21 promise. That’s four more administrations any one of which could “spike” it.
    There seems to be a great misunderstanding that CPP spells the end of coal fired electric power. Not so. Traditional coal fired Rankine plants produce about 2,100 lb CO2/MWh. It’s chemistry and math, fuel composition and efficiency. The same Rankine plant firing natural gas will produce about 1,100 lb/MWh. The CPP FF standard is 1,305, no way for coal, piece of cake for NG. Simple cycle gas turbines, the Brayton cycle, will also produce about 1,100 lb/MWh. Can’t meet 771, but they are peakers. A combined cycle, combustion turbine Brayton cycle, with the exhaust generating steam in a HRSG to power a steam turbine Rankine cycle will produce about 650 lb/MWh (standard is 771).
    While the standard set for fossil fired EGUs, 1,305 lb/MWh, is impossible for both existing and new coal plants to meet without expensive CCS, that’s not how it really works.
    The states have to inventory the generation under their jurisdiction and develop a plan that will meet the states performance standard, for Colorado that’s 1,374. So by shifting baseload generation toward natural gas through co-firing with coal, a common practice, or converting coal boilers to NG, another common practice when that ability is not already included, and building CCPP plants, the state can in aggregate meet the standard without wholesale demolition of coal plants. NG CCPPs are especially popular due to the low NG prices, robust designs, fast track environmental approvals, siting advantages, and quick erection. Excel’s Cherokee 5, 6, 7 is an excellent example. So older, less efficient coal plants will be retired, SC or CCPP installed, some might be converted/co-fire NG (NOT what EPA has in mind), newer coal designs/plants might be dispatched less, but will press on. Old NG Rankine stations will be refurbished, new NG Rankine units built (but why not just do CCPP?).
    So the state’s overall, collective, aggregate generation mix plans are what matter, not the individual units.
    And what is CPP supposed to accomplish? A 32% reduction in CO2 output from US power generation (not just coal). The US is responsible for about 16% of the world’s anthropogenic CO2 output (anthro CO2 is 2/3rd fossil fuel and 1/3rd land use changes). Power generation represents about 31% of US CO2 production. Therefore – 16% * 31% * 32% = 1.6%. CPP will reduce the global anthropogenic C2 output by 1.6%. China and India will cancel that out with their next dozen coal fired power plants.

  20. Building blocks, emissions credit swapping, aggregation of EGUs, flexibility and autonomy in meeting the state’s goals all lip stick on the Federalist pig attempting to disguise its overreach. The states should take the initiative and EPA at its word and manipulate its EGUs as needed to meet their performance standard. WECC, ERCOT and the western states should get together and manipulate both existing and new generation to achieve their aggregate performance standards. Once the numbers fall chances are the impact on coal would be minor, certainly not fatal.

    California with a lot of NG could swap with Utah allowing intermountain, Huntington, Hunter, et al. to press on with little real change. Colorado and Nebraska trade with Wyoming and the Dakotas. Vermont has no coal fired EGU’s, but it does have other EGUs and should have a standard like every other state it could use to play in the credit swapping game.

    Different standard for different states violates the equal protection clause. There should be one lb CO2/MWh which achieves the national goal of a 32% reduction and applied to ALL including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Guam. All states with EGUs start with the same number of chips which they can then trade, swap, sell, negotiate to achieve the national goal.

    • Different standard for different states violates the equal protection clause. There should be one lb CO2/MWh which achieves the national goal …

      Nicholas, before we get to equal protection under the law:

      I am going through my copy of the Constitution *) but I can’t locate any clause giving the federal government the power to regulate CO2. Like you, I wonder about the overreach but I’m not a constitutional lawyer so bear with me if I ask some layman questions.

      Does it fall under the federal government’s enumerated power to make rules concerning captures on land and water? Or is it the abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes? The gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country? The extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State? The bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan? 🙂

      ——————–
      *) The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center edition of the United States Constitution, Boulder, 2008

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