Clean Energy Now

Proposal is Faustian bargain: Bad health and degraded environment for more jobs

Sunday, March 16, 2008

By Terry Miller

This is a long-overdue response to Consumers Energy's well-orchestrated campaign for its coal-fired plant in Hampton Township.

Michigan activists this past Christmas sent pro-coal legislators a lump of coal (including, unfortunately, my party's two representatives in Lansing, Jeff Mayes and Jim Barcia).

A lump of coal is what the Saginaw Valley is going to get if elected officials and voters don't spend more time debating the pros and cons of coal, rather than jumping on this corporate wagon.

Few of us these days need education on global warming: It's real. Yes, there are many sources, but as Ed Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030,has said, ''The only fossil fuel that can fuel global warming is coal. If you stop coal, you stop global warming. End of story.''

So let's look at Consumers Energy's coal-fired plant. On the resolution that came before my township board, it was called a ''clean coal project'' - that alone deserves a Corporate Bad Citizen Award. A look at the company's permit application suggests that with 5.7 million tons of carbon dioxide, 109 tons of sulfuric acid mist, 3,424 tons of carbon monoxide a year (with a 30- to 40-year lifetime), this is about as ''clean'' as a mud-wrestling match.

Once the trash capital, Michigan now is in danger of becoming the global warming and pollutant capital. Five proposed coal-burner applications are being reviewed in Lansing, and two additional ones are being considered.

Let's look at other contaminants Consumers has put on its permit application:

* Particulate matter. Breathing these fine particles can worsen emphysema, lung disease and chronic bronchitis. This ''clean'' plant will add a minimum of 683 tons a year to the air.

* Nitrogen oxide; it reacts with organic compounds and sunlight to form ground-level ozone, or smog. A UCLA School of Medicine study found that over time, repeated exposure to smog and other air pollutants can cause as much damage to the lungs as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. This ''clean'' plant will add a minimum of 1,366 tons a year to the air.

* Then there's mercury, a neurotoxin linked to nerve and brain damage, and lead. I don't think we have to dwell on these two toxic metals, except to note their role in our chronic fish advisories and impact on both recreational and commercial fishing. The proposed ''clean'' plant will release, at a minimum, an additional 436 pounds of lead and 49 pounds of mercury to the environment, a year. Some clean, ah?

Why, one might ask, would anyone embrace such an appalling addition to global warming and our already impaired Saginaw River system? Why would we knowingly expose the nearly 10,000 asthma sufferers in Bay County and our most vulnerable citizens, children and the elderly, to additional amounts of smog and ozone? The answer is a Faustian bargain - bad health, degraded environment, for good jobs.

Electrical need, jobs, economic improvement - that's what I have heard repeatedly in the community. But are a host of dirty plants the only means?

The argument goes: We need power to drive Michigan's growing economy.

But even according to Gov. Granholm's 21st Century Energy Plan, with its small commitment to efficiency and renewables, only one 1,000-megawatt plant is expected to be necessary, or at best two small plants. By contrast, other plans such as Environment Michigan's New Energy Future (www.environmentmichigan.org/reports/energy) sees no need for new coal plants. It would eliminate any growth in electricity demand through energy efficiency and electricity from renewable sources.

What about the jobs and the economy?

A report developed by the Renewable Energy Policy Project and distributed by the Blue Green Alliance, a union of the Sierra Club and United Steelworkers, suggests that 185,000 megawatts of power would generate 24,350 jobs in wind, 6,644 jobs in solar, 1,502 jobs in geothermal and 2,281 in biomass - 34,777 jobs.

The rub, of course, is they would be all over Michigan, and not just the 1,800 construction jobs and 80 permanent positions specifically at the Karn-Weadock facility in Hampton Township. But they would revitalize Michigan and they would be clean. Bay County would participate in that revitalization.

It's time expand our narrow political borders for the greater good of all our citizens. Just imagine fishable, swimmable waters, healthy citizens and a healthy economy - it's time to turn away from the 19th century, and truly embrace the 21st century.

- Terry Miller of Monitor Township is chairman of the Lone Tree Council, and adjunct professor of history at Delta College.