*SNORT* Peabody Can't Find Any Utilities Willing To Accept Their "Clean Coal Award"
n the latest sign of the U.S. coal industry’s declining ability to compete in the power sector, Peabody Energy is now struggling to find electric utility companies who are willing to accept a “clean coal” award that it presents annually. In an email obtained through a public records request, a Peabody executive explained that it’s “hard these days for utilities to take the praise publicly.”
Peabody Energy, the largest coal mining company in the U.S., has spent years promoting the marketing phrase “clean coal” as part of its effort to convince the public and regulators that utilities should continue operating coal-fired power plants. One of those public relations efforts is Peabody’s presentation of “clean coal” awards each year to electric utilities and other entities at the Power-Gen International Conference.
Those awards have mostly highlighted utilities’ efforts to reduce air pollutants like sulfur dioxide or nitrous oxide at coal plants. A few awards have gone to carbon capture projects, such as Southern Company’s Kemper project. In a December 2016 press release, Peabody said its judges had determined that “the technology holds great promise for future new electric power plants,” despite a New York Times investigation five months earlier that revealed executives had concealed extensive problems from regulators. The Kemper carbon capture project was canceled soon after receiving Peabody’s award, following repeated failures and billions of dollars in cost overruns.
Last week in New Orleans, Peabody Energy announced its latest “clean coal” awards – but this time, it did not include any utility companies. The awards instead went to the Carbon Utilization Research Council, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a professor, and the Electric Power Research Institute. An email obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute through a public records request shows that Peabody now finds it difficult to give its “clean coal” awards to utility companies. Jacob Williams, a former Peabody executive and now the CEO of the Florida Municipal Power Agency, emailed a former colleague at Peabody to ask if the company was planning to “Hand out Clean Coal Awards” at last year’s Power-Gen International Conference in Orlando.
EDIT
https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/11/25/utilities-peabody-energy-clean-coal-awards
