Depending on Coal

St. Croix Electric gets most of its energy from Dairyland, a production cooperative owned jointly by a number of distribution cooperatives in Wisconsin and surrounding states, including St. Croix Electric. Dairyland gets almost 90% its energy from coal. This has been a source of problems for Dairyland — they recently settled a major lawsuit with the EPA and Sierra Club. The settlement requires them to pay a large fine and invest in renewable energy. For folks living near Dairyland’s plants, this settlement was a long time coming.

St. Croix Electric is a member of the Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Both organizations are heavily invested in lobbying against any further regulation of coal mining or coal-related pollution, and would like to see existing regulations watered down or removed. As a result, a portion of our electric bill goes to pro-coal lobbying efforts, regardless of whether we as individuals agree. I think this is wrong.

What’s the alternative?

Regardless of what you think of the science of climate change, depending on coal for such a large portion of our energy supply is risky — it’s a monoculture. I am very concerned that our cooperative has severely undervalued that risk. It’s true that coal prices are currently depressed, partly as a result of competition from natural gas. But the longer-term outlook suggests rising prices, even without new emission limits.

In the past, it made sense in this part of the country to depend on coal — it has been inexpensive, more readily available than hydro power, and until recently, much cheaper than natural gas. In addition, Federal loan guarantees were available to rural cooperatives to build power generating capacity on the condition that it use coal. One can easily imagine the back-room deals that brought that about.

Bulk electric power can be obtained in three ways:

1. An organization like Dairyland or Xcel can build large power plants to burn coal, or natural gas, or they could build large-scale wind or solar plants. Smaller plants sometimes burn solid waste, biomass (usually wood chips) or gas from landfills or manure digesters.
2. Dairyland can enter into long-term Power Purchase Agreements with owners of  production capacity. Many wind farms are financed and built by third parties, who sell their energy through such agreements. These only work if there is sufficient transmission capacity between the source and destination of the power.
3. Dairyland and other “Load-Serving Entities” can buy energy in hour-long blocks in the day-ahead and intra-day wholesale markets run by MISO, the Mid-Continent Independent Service Organization.

In addition to bulk power, individual distribution cooperatives like St. Croix Electric can generate energy locally, using solar arrays, wind turbines, or manure digesters. So far, a few members have installed solar arrays, but many do not have good locations for solar installations, and current cooperative policy discourages all but the smallest member-owned installations. The Sunflower 1 shared array is an alternative.

As a result of the EPA/Sierra Club settlement, Dairyland is obligated to invest in solar production. One project is near Westby, WI; another is near Rochester, MN.