Impacts to Natural Gas Delivery due to Coal-Fired Power Plant Retirements

摘要

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed and promulgated numerous environmental regulations in the past several years. Some of these regulations have been finalized and withstood challenges within the court system. Others have been challenged in the courts and been deemed unlawful. Most of these regulations have focused on reducing the environmental impacts from coal-fired generating stations. In addition to increased regulations of coal-fired power plants, the improved exploration and production technologies such as 3D seismic survey, directional drilling, and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has increased natural gas supply within the U.S. driving down the commodity price. Furthermore, the weak economic outlook of the U.S. has slowed load growth. The combination of these factors has put coal-fired generation in a very tight spot with regard to whether or not continued operation of older coal units is economical.