Home > Article

"CLEAN" COALS' DIRTY FACTS

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION CONTENDS THAT AN EXPANSION OF COAL-GENERATED POWER MUST BE PART OF THE "BALANCED" ENERGY POLICY

"Clean coal" refers to a variety of technologies that in theory are supposed to allow coal to be burned while producing little pollution. None has fulfilled that promise, however. Use of new technologies has helped reduce smokestack emissions, but Clean Coal Technology (CCT) power plants are still very dirty, much dirtier than natural gas fired plants. For example, levels of nitrogen oxide at the Fort Lonesome, Fla., "clean coal" plant are seven times higher than at a natural gas-fired facility. National Resource Defense Council
Proposed "clean coal" plants will still emit substantial levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, smog-forming nitrogen oxide, lung-damaging particulates & cause mercury contamination of water and land. NRDC
Coal is America's largest energy source, generating 52 percent of the nation's electricity. NRDC
Coal-fired power plants emit more hazardous air pollution than any other industry, including more than 60 different toxic chemicals.Clear The Air
In an average year, a typical coal-fired plant generates: 3,700,000 tons of carbon dioxide, or as much as cutting down 161 million trees; 10,000 tons of forest, lake and lung-damaging sulfur dioxide; 10,200 tons of ozone-forming and lung-inflaming nitrogen oxide – equivalent to the amount spitting out of the tailpipes of a half million late-model cars; 170 pounds of mercury, when just 1/70th of a teaspoon deposited in a 25-acre lake can make its fish unsafe to eat; and 225 pounds of arsenic, which will cause cancer in one out of 100 people who drink water containing 50 parts per billion.NRDC
SO2 and NOx emitted from coal-fired power plants form fine particles in the atmosphere. Numerous studies throughout the past decade have linked fine particles to serious health damages. A recent study found that fine particle pollution from U.S. power plants causes more than 603,000 asthma attacks a year and is cutting short the lives of more than 30,000 people each year. Clear The Air
SO2 and NOx emitted from coal-fired power plants contribute to acid rain. Clear The Air
There is no greater environmental threat than global warming. The largest sources of global warming pollution are coal-fired power plants and oil-fired automobiles that pump billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. The Bush plan calls for greater use of coal, and for oil production in currently protected areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.NRDC
Coal mining in the United States leaves scars across Appalachia, the Midwest and the West. Deep shaft and surface mining le ave millions of tons of waste, creating significant groundwater contamination. According to the U.S. Bureau of Mines, coal mining has contaminated more than 12,000 miles of U.S. streams and rivers with heavy metals, acid mine drainage and polluted sediments. Coal mining also has scarred hundreds of thousands of acres of American wilderness.NRDC
During fiscal year 1998, Peabody Western Coal Company (a subsidiary of Peabody Group) removed just under 11.8 million tons of coal from its Arizona mines. NRDC
Since mining began on Black Mesa three decades ago, close to 40 billion gallons of pristine groundwater have been pumped from the N-aquifer to feed the Peabody pipeline.NRDC
With the pipeline taking up to 43,000 tons of slurried coal per day, the company pumps as much as 120,000 gallons of water per hour.NRDC
The N-aquifer is experiencing what experts call "drawdown": the water pressure it has taken countless years to build is falling, threatening the aquifer's long-term health and the tribes' traditional and future water needs. NRDC
Under the Protocol, the U.S. is supposed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by seven percent. With four percent of the world's population, the U.S. accounts for about 25 percent of the Earth's greenhouse gas emissions.Environment News Service 03/28/01
" BALANCED?"......
The coal industry is particularly well-represented in the Bush transition. Among the members are Steven Chancellor, chief executive of Indiana-based Black Beauty Coal who is advising the new Energy Department and who -- along with his firm -- contributed $310,000 to the GOP.WashPost 01/17/01
John Wootten, a vice president of Black Beauty's parent firm, Peabody Group -- which has bitterly attacked the proposed Kyoto global warming treaty -- serves on the same panel. Peabody's chairman, Irl Englehardt, is on the Environmental Protection Agency transition team, (Peabody Group contributed $250,000 to The Republican National Committee. (Wash Post 03/25/01) the company said. Peabody spokesman Vic Svec said they were named "because of Peabody's position as the world's largest coal company and our advocacy of the use" of coal as a fuel, especially in light of rising natural gas prices.WashPost 01/17/01
But Peabody and Black Beauty have an even more direct line into the transition process: The head of the coordinating group team choosing top personnel for the Interior Department, and offering policy options, is Thomas Sansonetti. Until recently he was a lobbyist with a Wyoming law firm representing Peabody and other energy firms on leasing matters.Wash Post 01/17/01
Coal industry gave 88 cents out of every dollar in campaign contributions to GOP candidates or organizations.wash post 03/25/01
President Bush has jettisoned a campaign promise to require coal-burning power plants to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, after heeding industry warnings that such action could "kill coal." Now, industry officials who worked for this week's Environmental Protection Agency decision to revoke a Clinton administration crackdown on arsenic in drinking water are taking aim at more than two dozen pending rules regulating substances from coal mine dust and ozone to diesel particulates.wash post 03/25/01
President Bush, under heavy pressure from industry, has included $2 billion in his budget over the next 10 years for a third coal handout program. Not surprisingly, coal also has powerful proponents in Congress from mineral-rich states. There are 24 senators who have cosponsored an industry-backed bill to spend $1 billion over 10 years for research on "clean coal" and up to $6 billion in tax breaks for utilities to upgrade plants or build new ones using the technology. NRDC

SOUND COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY POLICY? WHEN IS IT ENOUGH? EVERY DAY WE WAIT TO ACT, THE PROBLEM GETS HARDER TO SOLVE.

Send Bush & Cheney a Black Mesa Global Solidarity Letter.

For more facts and info on alternative energy:

http://www.ems.org/energy_policy/clean_coal.html
http://www.ems.org/energy_policy/coal.html
http://www.nrdc.org
http://www.nrdc.org/water/conservation/draw/drawinx.asp
http://www.cleartheair.org

Black Mesa Indigenous Support

P.O. Box 23501, Flagstaff, Arizona 86002
Message Voice Mail: 928.773.8086
Email: blackmesais@yahoo.com