Untitled Document
Enough coal sits under Illinois, the nation’s
largest producer of bituminous coal, to power all of the households in
Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, and Finland until the year 2508. That’s a lot of potential power, and therefore
— the Sierra Club concludes in a report released late last month
— it comes with an enormous amount of responsibility. Although the debate over coal-burning power plants
often begins at the smokestack, Alice McKeown, a coal specialist for the
Sierra Club and the report’s author, finds that coal’s path of
destruction really begins in the mine and continues to wreak havoc until
waste finds its way to a landfill, abandoned mine, or human lung. In her report, titled The
Dirty Truth About Coal, McKeown writes:
“Pollution created by generating electricity from coal does not start
or stop at the power plant. It stretches all the way from the coal mine to
long after coal is burned and the electricity has been used in our homes
and businesses.”
Half the nation’s electricity comes from coal,
which, according to The Dirty Truth, uses 260 million gallons of water each day, produces 120
million tons of solid waste per year, and is the cause of 80 percent of the
carbon dioxide pollution from electricity production in the nation. “We must make sure that coal is mined
responsibly, burned cleanly, and does not exacerbate global warming if it
continues to be part of our nation’s energy equation,” the
report states. Despite technological advances, including the
integrated gasification combined cycle and carbon capture and
sequestration, McKeown cautions against trying to put lipstick on a hog. In
fact, she says, claims of “clean” and “carbon-free”
coal technologies serve as little more than marketing ploys. The report hits particularly close to home in
Illinois, where 16 coal-fired power plants are slated for construction in
the next few years. The Sierra Club has been responsible for delaying, or
blocking, many of the projects.
Threatening a court battle with the city of
Springfield last summer, the group held up construction of City Water,
Light & Power’s 200-megawatt plant until the city agreed to
implement additional environmental safeguards. (As of July 1, CWLP is
incorporating wind power into its energy portfolio — one of the
conditions of the Sierra Club agreement). The Sierra Club may soon be gearing up for another
local fight. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded
a permit to Omaha, Neb.-based Tenaska Energy Inc. to begin construction on
a 630-megawatt plant near Taylorville. Jack Darin, director of the Illinois branch of the
Sierra Club, says that the organization has called on Tenaska “to be
part of the solution and put forward a plan that gives Illinois and the
planet less, not millions of tons more” carbon dioxide. Unlike Springfield officials, however, Tenaska
“has shown little interest” in negotiating, Darin says.
Contact R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 4, 2007.
