Green Harbor

Whether or not the U.S. Congress can get their act together on the climate bill seems to be irrelevant in affecting major utility company’s decisions. Even with the bill just being introduced into the U.S. Senate, the new Climate Bill is already causing halts on planned coal-fired power plants and other future plans.

These new business decisions are primarily occurring within the biggest utility companies in the Southwest. One company that serves more than 2.4 million consumers and expects energy demand in Arizona to rise 50% in the next 15 years has put an indefinite hold on it’s newest plans to build a coal-fired power plant.

Business leaders are citing the unknown of the future price of carbon and the unfavorable options in carbon capture and storage technology as some of the current reasons for halting power plant development.

These executive realize change is coming in the American energy sector and that it is only a matter of time before the new Climate Bill is approved. However, the executives also state that companies can reposition themselves and develop profitable business models around new legislation if they act quickly enough and smart enough.

Many of the Southwest utility companies have already begun looking into renewable energy from projects such as solar farms as ways to replace their halted coal-fired power plant developments.

Related posts:

• U.S. Senators Boxer and Kerry Ready to Submit Climate Bill to the Senate
• Progress Energy of North Carolina set to Close 4 Coal Power Plants by 2017
• Natural Gas has a Tough Road Ahead to be Included in the New U.S. Senate Energy Bill
• A New Idea Proposed to Give the Climate Bill More Teeth, Will D.C. Notice?
• The Obama Administration’s Climate Bill Meeting Heavy Opposition in the Senate From Both Sides