CO2 Emission - Is it serious?

There have been a few interesting clouds in the sky the past few days. I think that they are important, but I don't quite know how or why. Cases in point:

• One of our regional electrical power utilities had a serious application for a large coal fired power plant to be built in our region rejected by that state's utilities commission. The reason stated for that application's rejection was its contribution to CO2 emissions. The power is needed and this plant's application has been moving forward for some time.


• The Governor of our state came out with a very public statement about how Colorado was going to be serious about CO2 emission reduction. Even more interesting was the presence of the CEO of our electrical power utility at the side of the Governor. That CEO runs an electrical power utility that is very heavily dependent on coal fired power generation, and is in fact mid-way through the construction of another 1,200 MW of coal fired power generation.


• A report on how our states utilities commission agrees with the concept that regulated utilities should be allowed to make an increased rate of return based on that utilities contribution the economic benefits resulting from enhancing Colorado's health and welfare. CO2 emissions were mentioned.


• At the Oil Shale Symposium hosted by the Colorado School of Mines recently, the major concern voiced by industry, academic and governmental participants was the anticipated increased CO2 emissions.

I don't know what this means. But I have some ideas. First of all, CO2 emission reduction is going to become important. No matter the science on global warming, CO2 emission control is here. It appears that the culture has decided that we need to control CO2 emissions and serious decisions with real financial consequences are going to be made on the basis of that concern.

On a very parochial basis, this is probably good news for ForeRunner for a number of reasons:

• Control of CO2 emissions means a lot more complexity to doing projects. This is obviously good for a company that does projects. On any energy project, the need for outside specialized project services goes up as project complexity increases. That rise in need for our services is not proportional, but exponential.


• In a world where CO2 emission needs to be controlled, natural gas is the fuel of choice. Since that is a very large part of our business, that is good for us as well.


• The Rocky Mountain Region is rich in untapped natural gas reserves. We are a major player in the Rocky Mountain natural gas service market. It looks like Rocky Mountain natural gas has another strong driver for its continued health and expansion.