Q&A: A full-tilt battle over electricity

Q&A: A full-tilt battle over electricity

Noble: Building a risky and old-fashioned coal plant like Big Stone II in today's economic and policy climate is folly. This proposed plant will produce more global-warming pollutants than all the cars in South Dakota. If the carbon market that Sens. [John] McCain and [Barack] Obama both support opens at $20 per ton, Big Stone's commercial customers have an unexpected $100 million annual liability. These carbon liabilities will hugely escalate as economy-wide emissions are ratcheted down, and the truth is that there is no plan to offset these costs.

Guerrero: It is easy to be a critic. All credible reports show our region nose-diving into a regional power pool where electric demand far outstrips supply. These are the industry's gusset-plate inspection reports. The region hasn't built baseload generation -- i.e., the stuff that runs 24/7 and powers our economy -- in more than 20 years.

And while $140-a-barrel oil gets the front page, America uses just 15 percent more of it today than in the energy crisis from the early 1970s. Electricity consumption, on the other hand, is up 115 percent. Just wait until we plug in all of our cars, a goal we all support. The reality is that the region's options for baseload generation are limited. Wind, while a superb renewable resource, is intermittent. New nuclear power is illegal in Minnesota. There is no more hydro, and biomass for power production will remain a niche. That leaves natural gas. If the Big Stone owners are forced to build a natural gas plant instead of coal, at today's natural gas prices, the annual penalty to consumers would be more than $300 million.