Renewal of Wind PTC Will Lead to Big Boost in Carbon Emissions

A Warning to Congress: Renewal of Wind Energy 
Subsidies Will Lead to Big Boost in CO2 Emissions:
 

... For those who say this problem is more a product of rock-

bottom natural gas prices than the PTC, I say think again. Wind

tends to be nocturnal, blowing during off-peak hours for power
consumption, according to UBS and a 2012 Northbridge study. 

It’s when people least need the power, yet that’s just when the 

taxpayers are being hit in the pocket. Natural gas plants are not 

setting wholesale prices in the dead of night, but the wind turbines keep spinning.

So how does all of this connect to going backwards on climate
change? Easy. 

This PTC problem causes the erosion of our existing nuclear fleet, 
the low-carbon workhorse. As I mentioned, nuke plants are shutting 
down prematurely — Vermont Yankee in Vermont and Kewaunee in 
Wisconsin to name two — and more are in danger of following suit. 
When that happens, climate scientists say, carbon emissions will skyrocket.

Starting and stopping our thermal plants to accommodate these 

windy splurges also causes big increases in all contaminant 

emissions, including carbon. Just as the fuel economy in your 

car worsens when you’re inching along in traffic rather than 

cruising at a steady 55 MPH, the so-called ‘cycling’ of gas and 

coal-fired plants burns up more feedstock, pouring CO2 into the 

atmosphere. In fact, Bentek, a Colorado energy analytics firm, 

found that the 1,327 cycling incidents in the state in 2009 created 

up to 6.8 million pounds of ‘extra’ SO2, 3.1 million pounds of NOX 

and 147,000 pounds of CO2.....

Read the entire article at:

http://tinyurl.com/l4c7fmb