Conclusion - Energy Policy Analysis: A Conceptual Framework - page 237

retirement of many ancient coal-fired power plants (USEPA 2011a, 2011b) that should have
been decommissioned many years ago. Although electric utility executives may be expected to
complain about this a great deal, these plants are so old—most of them predating passage of the
Clean Air Act of 1970, some of them over fifty years old—they have already paid for themselves
in profits and amortization and are the dirtiest power plants in the United States (perhaps in the
world) because many of them have long operated without any significant air pollution controls
(USOSM 1993, 10-14).
Damage estimates for various external effects of utilizing coal, oil, and natural gas added up
to more than $120 billion per year by 2005, principally from emissions of nitrogen oxides, sul-
fur dioxide, and particulate matter (NRC 2010, 21). Climate-related damages per ton of carbon
dioxide equivalent are expected to be 50 to 80 percent worse in 2030 than in 2005 (NRC 2010,
19). These estimates substantially understate the actual damages because they do not include the
cost of impacts from criteria air pollutants on ecosystem services or nongrain agricultural crops,
effects attributable to emissions of hazardous air pollutants, or many other kinds of damages that
could not be quantified (NRC 2010, 5, 21).
Executives in the electric utility industry who complain about the dollar costs of regulations
imposed upon their businesses while they report record annual profits need to be reminded peri-
odically that laws that impose regulatory restrictions on human behavior exist for a reason. Those
laws were not created out of whimsy or idle speculation or fantastic imagination. Laws that impose
regulatory restrictions on human behavior are usually a direct response to real events that actually
happened in the past or real possibilities that seem likely in the near future.
The profit motive is so strong in the United States that some people need to be reminded
periodically it is not socially acceptable to cause death or injury to others just to make a profit.
Our libraries are full of descriptions of death and injury to others, and destruction of their
property, for the sake of profit—historical events have actually occurred and would probably
happen again in the absence of such laws. In fact, behavior that causes such events contin-
ues today in some quarters, which is why we occasionally hear on the evening news about
successful law enforcement proceedings ag ainst major corporations ch arged with violating
those same regulations. ENRON, a major energy trader that caused significant damage to the
economy of the State of California, as well as to its own stockholders, comes immediately to
mind. Law enforcement actions prove the need for regulatory restrictions on human behavior.
New rules to reduce toxic air pollutants are a case in point. With retirement of highly pollut-
ing coal-fired power plants, other sources of power will be needed to fill demand. Renewables
are available to meet the need with lower overall costs than so-called clean coal or new coal
plant construction.
PETROLEUM
The chemical industry uses liquid petroleum as feedstock for production of plastics, polyure-
thane, solvents, asphalt, and hundreds of other products (USEIA 2010) with high added value
to the economy and to human life. Petroleum use for such a low-grade economic activity as
transportation seems profligate and short-sighted, considering that petroleum is a finite resource
and there are other energy fuel technologies available for transportation, requiring only the
continued development and adoption of innovations already under way (Lovins and Rocky
Mountain Institute 2011, 16-75). Increased use of unconventionally fueled (electric, hybrid,
fuel cell) vehicles has already begun and should be encouraged as an act of patriotism, as well
as economic self-interest.