Clean Coal Boondoggle Consumes More Energy Than It Produces

America is not in decline because of any shortage of natural resources. Due to the destructive ideology of those in charge, our abundant resources cannot be exploited efficiently. A Duke Energy clean coal plant is emblematic:

[T]he complicated, uneconomical boondoggle that Duke Energy built in Edwardsport, Ind. so as to burn coal gas rather than coal — and thus produce less carbon dioxide than a traditional coal plant — may be the dumbest idea to fight imaginary global warming to date. If you swallow the alarmists’ premise and “solutions,” the plant so far is a joke, as recent evidence shows it is using more energy than it produces.

Why do we want to produce less carbon dioxide, which helps crops to grow? Because according to liberal dogma, CO2 makes it be too hot out.

Global CO2 output has been soaring for decades. Meanwhile, the USA just experienced its coldest winter in 102 years. The theory all this waste is based on is also a joke.

Back to the boondoggle:

Edwardsport was supposed to cost $1.9 billion but that estimate was about $1.6 billion short. The project has hacked and wheezed since 2006 under evidence of cronyism, corruption, conflicts of interest, cost overruns, delays, waste, and mismanagement, but at least it became operational in June — for six days. Then it broke down, and intermittently juiced the grid for the remainder of 2013. Duke was only able to extract 37 percent of Edwardsport’s maximum capacity during the period, according to the Indianapolis Star. Hoosier State customers are paying up to 16 percent more for the privilege — a rate hike pretty much cemented into their bills last week by a state Court of Appeals decision.

Sounds like most any operation run by the government — or by crony capitalists who rely on subsidies from the government rather than being efficient enough to compete under conditions of economic freedom.

As the Indianapolis Business Journal reported, in an extremely cold January, the art-of-the-state coal gasifier eked out only four percent of its capacity.

“Edwardsport generated 19,644 megawatt hours of electricity,” the Journal reported, “enough to power about 20,000 homes, in one of the most frigid months on record, according to a Feb. 28 filing with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. The new plant, at its maximum capacity, could have generated almost 460,000 megawatt hours in January.”

And now, in the latest battle Edwardsport has taken against global warming, the plant was found to have used more energy from September to November than it produced. The Business Journal reported earlier this month that Duke is trying to recover $1.5 million in fuel costs related to the plant…

Crony capitalism crossed with environmental extremism is not going to keep the lights on for long.

When someone writes the definitive Decline and Fall of America, “green energy” will fill at least an entire volume.

On a tip from JusttheTipHQ. Hat tip: Gateway Pundit. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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