Archive for the ‘Coal’ Category

« Older Entries

Friends of America Rally; How Friendly is It?

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Over Labor Day weekend we’re going to see a massive political event promoting climate change denial and mountaintop mining according to Credo. Some 25,000 people have signed up for the event. The same climate skeptics will be on board to include Lord Monkton, as well as, the usual messengers of the far right like Sean Hannity. And not a surprise, Ted Nugent will supply music. Hank Williams will even be on board. It’s being dubbed the “Friends of America Rally.”

How friendly is it? The rallies are nothing more than the tangible power of polluting industries like coal and oil that are backing them and strangling the rest of America from moving forward with clean energy jobs, work on new infrastructure to deliver that clean energy, and economic turnaround, not to mention the health aspects of cleaner air and water for generations to come.

It’s ludicrous to call this movement “friendly” to America at all. Who releases invisible, and sometimes odorless, but nevertheless harmful pollutants into the air that also ends up in our water? Who dumps chemicals, drugs, and makes huge environmental mistakes like oil spills and coal slurry spills into our waterways? And did it ever occur to anyone that when we’re assured from the different polluting entities that the parts per million or PPM that is being released is well within the limits of what is healthful for humans that there are 100’s of other industries saying likewise? So the safe limits of PPM of mercury, ammonia, carcinogens from incinerators, and the thousands of supposedly controlled substances entering the air meet up with the PPM limits of mercury, lead, pharmaceutical compounds, big Ag runoff and the like found in our drinking water that meet up with the sometimes tainted food we eat full of additives like corn syrup solids that help along the Type II diabetes problem in the U.S.

The industries that do this to our air, water, and food protest global warming as way to sideline the real issue, which is their pollution, in order stop any policies that might make them clean up their mess, and to avert new green industry that is competition. It’s one of the greediest ploys ever and polluting industry is pulling out all the stops. They put saving jobs out front at these rallies to mask the bad they do to the environment and all of us including their employees in the long run. The rise in cancer rates and new diseases isn’t a coincidence but may be more of an indication of what we’re really eating, breathing, and drinking.

These anti-environmental rallies are called “grassroots” events but DeSmogBlog dubbed them “glorified company picnics.” A New Mexico blog FBIHOP reported: “The Houston Astroturf event [was] an ‘energy employee’s rally’ a more fitting description of the closed door event that drew somewhere between 2,500-3,500 oil industry employees who were bussed in and given yellow ‘Energy Citizen’ t-shirts in “‘another high-priced photo op for the oil and gas industry.’”

It was also stated that one of the rallies in Texas was organized by the DW Turner PR firm that represents BP and Chevron.

The biggest “Friends of America” rally slated for Labor Day in West Virginia is no different. It’s backed by none other than Massey Energy that is a notoriously dirty coal company. According to the Rural Blog, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported:

Massey Energy Co. will pay a record $20 million for polluting streams around its coal mines in Kentucky and West Virginia, and spend another $10 million to prevent future problems. The lawsuit filed by the Environmental Protection Agency last May charged that Massey discharged excess amounts of metals, sediment and acid mine drainage into hundreds of rivers and streams in the two states.

The Rural Blog also included Louisville’s The Courier-Journal statement:

The civil penalty [for Massey] is the largest ever for violating wastewater discharge permits, and “stems from the massive, 300-million-gallon slurry spill in Martin County, Ky., in October 2000, often described as the southeastern United States’ worst environmental disaster, as well as 4,500 violations of Clean Water Act permits at mines in the two states. Many of the violations exceeded limits by 40 percent, with some pollutants discharged at levels more than 10 times their limit, the government said.

So if you run across Massey’s CEO Don Blankenship’s invitation to the Labor Day rally on You Tube where he says: “Hello I’m Don Blankenship and I’d like to invite you to a Labor Day rally in West Virginia. We’re going to have Hank Williams and have a good time but we’re also going to learn how environmental extremists and corporate America are both trying to destroy your jobs,” beware of the devil who likes to confuse.

Massey IS corporate America at its polluting finest. These rallies support the real extremists.

BTW the rallies aren’t limited to a few states. Michigan has one slated for September 3rd, Detroit’s Burton Manor Banquet and Conference Center.

http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/trial-procedure-suits-claims/10272123-1.html
.

http://irjci.blogspot.com/2008/01/massey-paying-record-penalty-for-water.html.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/verizon_massey/?rc=homepage.

Posted in CO2 Emissions, Clean Water Act, Coal, Conservation, EPA, Environment and Jobs, Environmental Legislation, Environmentalism, Food, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming Policy, Health, Holidays, Industry, Mercury, Morality, Oil Lobby, Oil Spills, Politics, Pollution, Protesting Pollution, Science, The Denial Machine | 2 Comments »

Freshwater Fish Full of Mercury

Friday, August 21st, 2009

A new U.S. Geological Study “found mercury in every freshwater fish from nearly 300 streams that were tested, an astonishing result because mercury has usually been associated with large saltwater fish,” according to an article on ABC news website,
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=8369324.

The 7-year study tested more than a 1,000 fish. The USGS warns Americans to limit the amount of large predator freshwater fish they eat like WALLEYE! Hear that Michiganders? Enjoy, but limit the amount you eat.

Even worse about a quarter of all those fish have mercury levels higher than what the EPA says is safe. If you followed my blogs through a few years of the Bush Administration, the EPA was corporate friendly to say the least.

The article then defers to the National Fisheries Institute’s response to this study: “If you have a family member that’s out there fishing in a stream, beware.” That pretty much supports the story. The Fisheries Institute just wanted to make it clear that the fish you buy in a store isn’t as bad as that fish you caught in what you thought was a nice clear stream. I did a blog on this long ago. You’ve got a choice of wild caught fish with mercury or farm raised fish with PCB’s.

Since I sit in my TV room that overlooks the canal while I write this, I’m also looking at the wetlands behind my house. I can’t help but think of the huge chain of animals that call the canal home–all the little baby geese, and ducks that I’ve fed that swim up every spring, the little muskrats that run up my berm and grab one of my apples on the ground, the turtles that sun themselves on the downed logs, and all the birds in the mix including swans. I can’t help but think what we’ve done to them. Not fair, not fair at all.

And just what causes mercury in the water EVERYWHERE? Gee I wonder. Did you know that the coal lobby managed to gouge holes in the House version of the American Climate and Energy Security Act so that coalburners will still supply half of our electricity until 2025 and the rate of pollution will go unchanged for the next 15 years? According to Earthjustice, not only will they keep polluting but may expand with 27 new coalburners that will also be exempt from having to curb or capture any pollution.

When you consider the fuss Americans made at the American auto industry for producing gas guzzling, polluting SUV’s because the same American’s demanded those types of cars, you can clearly see this is a really unfair playing field as to who is towing the line on pollution or not. The coal industry is no different than oil—they are fat with money unlike our auto industry. Money talks. That’s what every other polluting industry thinks too. As Earthjustice reports, “The concessions the coal industry has gained so far have encouraged other fossil fuel lobbyists to step up their efforts to maintain the disastrous status quo.” That means some pretty hefty offers heaped on our congress people.

And everyone is already saying the Senate will never pass the House version. The Senate will undoubtedly water it down more. Unless of course we voice our opinion to our reps to move forward and not weaken the bill but fill those unfair gaps in a bill that must include all industry not just a chosen few.

We’re going to shoot off our foot before long and continue working up our leg if we don’t see that reform isn’t a choice but a necessity.

http://unearthed.earthjustice.org/blog/2009-july/trip-van-noppen/lets-defend-climate-change-bill.

Posted in Animals in Peril, Coal, Coal Mining, Coalburners, Earthjustice, Environmental Legislation, Food, Fossil Fuel, Great Lakes Pollution, Industry, Marine Life, Michigan Clean Water, Protecting Wetlands, Utilities, Wetlands | No Comments »

New Findings Show Relative Relationship Between CO2 Emissions and Global Warming

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

New Findings to be published in Nature find that each carbon dioxide emission “results in the same global temperature increase, regardless of when or over what period of time the emission occurs,” according to an article on Science Daily’s website. That means we can now predict that X amount of CO2 will result in Y amount of global temperature increase.

The article stated: “Professor Damon Matthews of Concordia University together with colleagues from Victoria and the U.K., used a combination of global climate models and historical climate data” for their new findings. The conclusion is that if we want to restrict global warming to 2 degrees, we must restrict total carbon emissions—”from now until forever.”

The validity of climate models has been an argument of skeptics but an article from Science Daily’s website late last year announced “findings published in the online edition of the journal Science shed further light on the fluctuations in greenhouse gases and climate in Earth’s past, and appear to confirm the validity of the types of computer models that are used to project a warmer climate in the future.” Ice core samples were used for the completed analysis of the global carbon cycle and climate for a 70,000-year period in the most recent Ice Age. The analysis showed a “remarkable correlation between carbon dioxide levels and surprisingly abrupt changes in climate.”

Professor Matthews said that he thinks most people understand CO2 emissions contribute to global warming but do not understand all the complexities in between. He said, “Our findings allow people to make a robust estimate of their contribution to global warming based simply on total carbon dioxide emissions.”

So man contributes directly to global warming as long as man keeps emitting carbon dioxide emissions into the air. We are indeed a closed ecosystem on earth. These findings show that even when we emit CO2 and think we’re getting away with it because there is no immediate response, at some point in time—a simple linear relationship, that carbon dioxide will come back to haunt us in the form of warmer global temperatures.

Read: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090610154453.htm.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080911150048.htm.

Tags:
Posted in Animals in Peril, CO2 Emissions, Coal, Coalburners, Energy, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Industry, Pest Populations and Global Warming, Pollution, Science, Weather/Climate | 2 Comments »

Jim Rogers of Duke Energy Admits Coalburner Emissions Stoke Global Warming

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Duke Energy is the 3rd largest utility in the country. Its CEO, Jim Rogers, admitted that coal fired plants contribute heavily to global warming on CBS’ 60 Minutes last night. Rogers talked about coal as cheap and plentiful but DIRTY. Clean coal commercials are misleading to say the least.

The report went on to show one Duke coal plant that traps all the CO2 emissions, liquefies the stuff, and pumps it underground. The problem is this plant cost $1.5 billion to build. And I’ve read this over and over again, and Rogers says the same, there is no scientific data about the results of pumping enormous amounts of liquid CO2 underground. Enormous is not an exaggeration. The 60 Minute report showed how much coal one particular Duke Energy coal plant uses per day. The rail cars were one mile long! That’s a lot of CO2 to capture without knowing what exactly will happen when we pump it underground. We’ve already become like human mosquitoes, poking upwards of a million holes in the earth for mining coal, oil, or gas in this country alone. This is quite a bloodsucking scenario we’ve perpetrated on earth already. Now we’re prepared to poke holes to put stuff back in. I guess big bloated landfills aren’t enough for the earth to digest. We need to pump stuff into it too.

All of this uncertainty about pumping CO2 into the ground hasn’t deterred the U.K. Its Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband announced last Friday: “Any new coal-fired power stations built in Britain will have to be fitted with cutting-edge technology to capture their carbon emissions.” http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/clean-coal-is-future-for-energy-supplies-1673412.html. While this will probably prove to be too costly for the U.K., at least the government isn’t allowing any more coalburners to be built the old fossil fuel way. Duke plans to build two more coalburners in the near future.

Duke Energy is of the notion that phasing out all coal burning facilities in the next 20 years is a “no-can-do.” That’s a pretty definite answer from a company that admits it’s part of the problem. Besides, how many times have we heard “it can’t be done” about airplanes, autos, refrigerators, television, air conditioning, microwave ovens, pc’s, etc? I distinctly remember working on some of the first desk top computers at U of M hospital in 1974. The main frame took up a room. Now our cell phones are morphing into mini computers. And of course new technology costs. Look at digital watches when they first came out compared to today where you can buy one at the dollar store.

I believe most of the cost of changing technology and moving in a new direction comes from fighting the guys that don’t want to let go of their moneymaker, whether it kills us or not.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minutes/video/video.php?cid=927554855&pid=1ycm_ajYxX_wB8aWbGnAICZ_G9ytgdmf&play=true&cc=0.

Posted in Alternative Energy, Coal, Coal Mining, Coalburners, Conservation, Earth, Energy Costs, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Utilities | No Comments »

Stricter Mercury Rules on the Way

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

An appeal was filed last year in the Supreme Court when a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia threw out the EPA’s cap and trade program for mercury, and the court told the EPA how they “erred by taking power plants off the list of hazardous pollution sources when it issued its Clean Air Mercury Rule” that advocated the cap and trade program. The court then gave the EPA two years to develop mercury emissions standards for existing power plants. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/02/us-court-of-appeals-gets-tough-on-epa-and-mercury-pollution/

Well, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider the appeal Monday. The court’s decision not to hear the case this time around “invalidates the U.S. EPA’s so-called Clean Air Mercury Rule, which would have allowed dangerous levels of mercury pollution to persist under a weak cap-and-trade program that would not have taken full effect until after 2020,” according to an article on ENS website.

The article went on to say, “The Supreme Court also granted the Obama administration’s request, made two weeks ago, to drop the Bush administration appeal.” So the idea of cap and trade for mercury is pretty much a dead dog. To top it all off, Lisa Jackson as the newly appointed EPA Administrator promises to move quickly to develop stricter mercury standards for power plants—uh, oh.

Let’s see how clean coal can get, LOL.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2009/2009-02-24-093.asp

Posted in Bush Administration, Coal, Coalburners, EPA, Environmental Legislation, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Industry, Mercury, Utilities | 1 Comment »

More Coalburners Possible for Michigan

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

 

With Michigan’s economy in the dumper and deficits rising, it’s hard for many to stick to a green path in Michigan. Construction of two new coalburners by Wolverine Power Supply and Consumers Energy are planned that will bring work there for a while.

 

But how do we think this will fair alongside new green industry Michigan is looking to entice to our area? We can’t expect green companies to park themselves next to one of the greatest pollution producing industries—coal. It would make for strange neighbors.

 

And what about our health in Michigan? If we expect to horde our water to keep it here, than we have the responsibility to keep that water fresh. Exposing more of our open fresh water to toxic mercury from these plants is unacceptable. Besides that our own health from the air born toxins are in jeopardy. The following is an excerpt from those in Michigan’s medical profession:

As medical doctors conducting health research at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan respectively, we feel compelled to warn that construction of these plants would gravely impair Michigan’s air quality and expose our communities to severe, even lethal, health impacts.

Coal plants release at least 70 different pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, particulate matter and mercury. These pollutants are known carcinogens, teratogens, neurotoxins, and/or cardiopulmonary irritants.

And we wonder why there are so many new cases of autoimmune disease and cancer? This isn’t just about jobs, this is about our health and welfare, which is supported by our environment, the air we breathe, water and food we drink and eat. There are so many more pollutants and toxins in our environment than our ancestors experienced that our bodies are overworked daily. So when we face something as simple as allergies our immune response is flooded. Just yesterday a friend called me to say that another dear friend died of problems arising from his immune system.

 

As Americans we have a tendency to seek instant gratification, only that can sometimes lead to acting without foresight and create more drastic problems down the road. We can’t wait to get jobs in Michigan and are quick to overlook the ramifications of adding more pollution to our state with these coalburners without really, really attempting to facilitate other sources. We gets jobs, get a paycheck for building coal fired power plants, but down the line we suffer grief and lose that income and more to illness. It isn’t worth it.

 

We have a new president on the way with new economic ideas that are environmentally friendly. It looks like this push to start construction on these coalburners is a rush to get by before the new president takes office. And when everyone finds that there are many, many jobs waiting in green industry also, that we have a choice of work, and alternatives for energy, there won’t be much of a long-term future for the archaic fossil fuel industry will there? That’s motive for the fossil fuel energy companies that isn’t in the best interest of the people in this state. The more we manage to forge ahead into green technology, the greater the strides we will make toward some pretty remarkable energy sources that won’t infringe on the environment and ultimately on our own well being.

 

Contact Governor Granholm that you want a stay on these permits for now: http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-21995—,00.html

 

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901070332

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901070345

 

Posted in Alternative Energy, CO2 Emissions, Coal, Coalburners, Environment and Jobs, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Great Lakes Pollution, Green Construction, Industry, Mercury, Michigan, Michigan Energy Legislation, Michigan Environmental News, Michigan Environmental Policy, Michigan Pollution, Michigan/Great Lakes, Protesting Pollution, The Detroit Free Press, Utilities | 4 Comments »

DTE’s Latest Award

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

The Clean Corporate Citizen (C3) program, established under Administrative Rules R324.1501 to R324.1511, allows regulated establishments that have demonstrated environmental stewardship and a strong environmental ethic through their operations in Michigan to be recognized as Clean Corporate Citizens. The C3 program is built on the concept that these Michigan facilities can be relied upon to carry out their environmental protection responsibilities without rigorous oversight, and should enjoy greater permitting flexibility than those that have not demonstrated that level of environmental awareness. Clean Corporate Citizens who voluntarily participate in this program will receive public recognition and are entitled to certain regulatory benefits, including expedited permits. http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3307_3666_4134—,00.html

While I’m happy that DTE is looking into investing in environmentally sound alternatives in the future, and this attempt to clean up AROUND Monroe’s coalburner is great progress, the Clean Corporate Citizen’s award is a little out of place here. What about the mercury? What about the CO2? Has DTE turned our coalburner into a carbon capture plant, because unless all three things are addressed with this award, than clean is a subjective word?

The award comes from Michigan’s DEQ whose budget has recently been slashed again. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/?p=414. The same DEQ that warns they will have fewer regulators looking out for Michigan’s wetlands, rivers, and streams, and will not likely to be able to respond to pollution spills.

If you read about the Clean Corporate Citizen program above it says, “regulated establishments that had a strong environmental ethic THROUGH their operations in Michigan…” Come on, DTE just recently installed scrubbers that DO NOT address CO2 and or the resultant mercury emissions. It’s the second largest burner in the country.

I especially like the part above that says: “should enjoy greater permitting flexibility than those that have not demonstrated that level of environmental awareness.” DTE is now a Clean Corporate Citizen who can enjoy EXPEDITED permits says the Dept. of Environmental Quality that no longer has the funds to regulate what happens to much of our state’s surface waters. The same surface waters of which 25% do not fall under the Great Lakes Compact protection either, thanks to Michigan’s senate.

Lovely.

Posted in CO2 Emissions, Coal, Coalburners, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Great Lakes Pollution, Mercury, Monroe Environmental News, Monroe Pollution | 2 Comments »

Sign Petition to Governor Granholm to Direct DEQ to Regulate CO2/Mercury Emissions

Monday, April 14th, 2008

Ah, how soon we forget. Just a little over a year ago the United States Supreme Court ruled that the EPA could not bypass its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. That ruling caused a rush to court on behalf of other industry polluters, i.e., coal burning facilities. But luck ran out for the coal industry when the of U.S. Court of Appeal’s basically threw the EPA’s cap and trade program out, and told the EPA that they were wrong by taking power plants off the list of hazardous pollution sources with its “Clean Air Mercury Rule.” Now the EPA has two years to develop mercury emissions standards for existing power plants. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=232

So it seems a little redundant for citizens to have to sign a petition to send a message to our state congress to get Michigan moving. This particular petition calls for Governor Granholm to issue an executive order to immediately direct Michigan’s DEQ (Dept. of Environmental Quality) to regulate CO2 emissions from coal and other power facilities.

The real goal here is to show our state government we are indeed watching what does or does not happen in Michigan as far as legislation to move forward to bring new jobs to boost the economy, while continuing to curb pollution in Michigan. Our two houses and the governor continue to come to a stalemate regarding jobs, the environment, pollution, and our economy. We wouldn’t be as afraid to loose jobs in polluting industries like construction of coalburners, refineries, and even nuke plants, if we had a decent RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) and Energy Efficiency program to entice more green industry into our state, which seems to go hand in hand with the technical industries also.

Job growth in a new sector certainly takes the sting out of job loss and poor working conditions in waning manufacturing sectors. So get on with it Michigan! We’re missing a golden opportunity to transform ourselves quickly from old manufacturing status quo to something new completely that’s being afforded by green industry.

Perhaps signing a petition to nudge our politicians forward is a very good idea to show we want the greenboth industry and paycheck green.

Take the time to sign at: http://progressmichigan.org/page/s/globalwarming.

Posted in Alternative Energy, CO2 Emissions, Coal, Coalburners, Conservation, EPA, Environment and Jobs, Environmental Legislation, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Legislators, Mercury, Michigan, Michigan Energy Legislation, Michigan Environmental Policy, Michigan Pollution, Michigan/Great Lakes, Pollution, Protesting Pollution, Supreme Court | 3 Comments »

DTE Indicates No Growth in Demand for Electricity in Michigan Through 2012

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Hopefully, everyone in Michigan realizes by now that we are not simply in an economic downturn. We are going through a transformational change away from a predominantly manufacturing state toward more economic diversity. We should have done this long ago. Michigan has suffered horrible ups and downs in the economy from relying too heavily on the auto industry. If we can just hang tight and move to change wisely, things will get increasingly better for Michigan. Dr. Charles Ballard, an economist, writes about transformational change in his book “Michigan’s Economic Future.”
http://www.absolutemichigan.com/dig/michigan/michigan-books-michigans-economic-future/

We don’t need anyone to tell us we’re going through something much different than regular economic cycles. We know we’re trying to expand our markets, many of which will be green markets. Back in 2006, Governor Granholm issued an Executive Directive for the development of a comprehensive plan for meeting the state’s electric power needs that would include alternative sources and a timetable. As a result the MPSC, Michigan Public Service Commission, developed the 21CEP or 21st Century Energy Plan. That plan calculated what would happen if Michigan’s economy went through a tranformational change for the worse, which is evident as loss of manufacturing capacity and jobs continues: http://www.emaee.org/articles.php?id=42 and http://www.cis.state.mi.us/mpsc/electric/capacity/energyplan/newenergy_oct11_2006rev.pdf

The MPSC calls transformational change for the worse “low load growth sensitivity” and the results of this low demand for electricity is found on page 67 of the above pdf from the MPSC. The table there shows no new coal plants are needed until 2021. This is big difference from DTE’s rate filing before the MPSC that shows no growth demand until 2012, a nine year difference. But it shows that even DTE doesn’t expect any increase in electricity demand for years. Pages 73-75 of http://efile.mpsc.cis.state.mi.us/efile/docs/15417/0001.pdf

There should be a moratorium on any new permits for coalburners then. The rush to get scrubbers on Michigan’s coalburners satisfies Michigan’s lax CO2 laws that state if a number of emissions are eliminated, then the owner of the coalburning facility can apply for a permit to expand that facility and not have to capture or control the remaining emissions. Unfortunately sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxide (NOx), mercury, and CO2 are all lumped together. The scrubbers will eliminate the sulfur and nitrogen, but the mercury and more CO2 are good to go. Why the rush to put scrubbers on coal plants now if not to apply for permits, and before the rules change? Any new permits for expansion or new construction of coalburning facilities should be denied because by DTE’s own admission, the increase in demand for electricity in Michigan is simply not there, at least for awhile.

Tags:
Posted in CO2 Emissions, Coal, Coalburners, Conservation, DTE, Energy, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Industry, Mercury, Michigan Energy Legislation, Michigan/Great Lakes, Pollution, Utilities | 1 Comment »

Clean Coal Remains Illusive

Friday, March 28th, 2008

We’ll soon be seeing a new media blitz from the coal industry because people are catching on that coal is not clean. The industry is throwing $30 million dollars into an advertising and public relations campaign under the name of Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC). But the list that follows are all polluters like Billiton the largest mining company in the world, or CONSOL the largest producer of bituminous coal in America. They just don’t have motivation to cut into that kind power unless it’s from the kindness of their hearts.

AMEREN, American Electric Power, Arch Coal, Arkansas Electric Coop, Associated Electric Coop, Association of American Railroads, Basin Electric Power Coop, BHP Billiton, Buckeye Industrial Mining, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Group, CONSOL Energy, CSX, Detroit Edison, Duke Energy, Edison Electric Institute, First Energy Corp, Foundation Coal, Hoosier Energy, Massey Energy, National Mining Assoc., National Rural Electric Coop, Norfolk Southern, Peabody Energy, Southern Co., Tri-State Generation and Transmission, Union Pacific Railroad, Western Farmers Electric Coop.

This group is using other groups like America’s Power and Clean Coal USA to advertise across the country to make their coal look green. So be alert. There is nothing new. There is not a new kind of coal plant that generates electricity with lower CO2 emissions. There is coal that has very low sulfur content. And sulfur content and other particulates can be removed by what is termed “scrubbers.” That’s not new technology, but it will help alleviate lung problems. Until something drastically changes coal users like the cheap dirty stuff because everything else costs money. This is a good article about it from the Wall Street Journal: http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/Clean-Coal-Oxymoron-WSJ.htm

In 2001 President Bush committed to more advanced clean coal technologies. According to an article on DOE’s website: “The Clean Coal Power Initiative is providing government co-financing for new coal technologies that can help utilities meet the President’s Clear Skies Initiative to cut sulfur, nitrogen and mercury pollutants from power plants by nearly 70 percent by the year 2018. Also, some of the early projects are showing ways to reduce greenhouse emissions by boosting the efficiency by which coal plants convert coal to electricity or other energy forms.” Come on, 10 more years to just get sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury pollutants down? That’s lame. http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/cleancoal/.

Not much is new with coal except for trapping the gas, and where to put it. Our Michigan CO2 well should be about full this weekend. It didn’t hold nearly enough liquid CO2. It’s not a solution. How many more holes are we going to rip into the earth? We have over 500,000 mines in the U.S. Many are old and abandoned. We have over 500,000 oil wells, many are done, fini. That’s a lot of holes in the ground. Will the earth heal quickly from the millions of holes we’ve drilled?

Posted in Alternative Energy, Alternative Energy Sources, Bush Administration, Coal, Coal Mining, Coalburners, Environmental Legislation, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Geothermal Power, Global Warming, Great Lakes Pollution, Mercury, Michigan Environmental Policy, Michigan Pollution, Michigan/Great Lakes, Monroe Environmental News, Monroe Pollution, Pollution, Protecting Wetlands, White House Council on Environmental Quality, Wildlife, Wind Power | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries