Fossil Fuels’ Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says
Burning fossil fuels costs the United States about $120 billion a year in health costs, mostly because of thousands of premature deaths from air pollution, the National Academy of Sciences reported in a study issued Monday. The damages are caused almost equally by coal and oil, according to the study, which was ordered by Congress. The study set out to measure the costs not incorporated into the price of a kilowatt-hour or a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel.
100 Coal Plants Prevented or Abandoned, Including 3 in Michigan PDF
As of today 100 coal plants have been defeated or abandoned since the beginning of the coal rush this century, including the Tondu Northern Lights Plant proposal in Manistee, the LS Power MidMichigan Energy plant proposal, and Northern Michigan University’s proposed heating plant in Michigan. In their place, a smart mix of clean energy solutions like energy efficiency, wind, solar and geothermal has stepped up to meet America’s energy needs. Last year 42 percent of all new power producing capacity came from wind, and for the first time the wind industry created more jobs than mining coal. Despite Michigan’s difficult economic situation, wind and solar energy manufacturing has been one of the bright spots for job creation in the state.
In Rogers City, Strong Criticism of Coal Ash Proposal
Rogers City—A large number of Presque Isle County residents are questioning a plan to store massive amounts of toxic waste from a proposed 600 MW coal-fired power plant in the same giant limestone quarry near Lake Huron where the plant itself would be built. he sharp public opposition to the landfill was the second unpleasant surprise of the day for Wolverine officials: Just a few hours earlier, they had received word that the Michigan Public Service Commission had determined that the company did not need to build a new power plant to meet its customers’ future energy demands.
Governor Granholm and Michigan Tribes sign accord to reduce greenhouse gasses
June 12, 2009 in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan—Governor Jennifer Granholm and 12 Sovereign Tribes of Michigan signed an accord to fight Global Warming by reducing greenhouse gasses. Governor Granholm and Tribal Leaders have been leading their respective nations in addressing Global Warming and re-energizing what Michigan does best, manufacture a new century’s transition to a green economy that is the fastest job creator in the state. Governor Granholm announced a 45% reduction in fossil fuels in her State of the State address, February 3, 2009. On March 5, 2009 Governor Granholm signed an agreement with the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy. Chief Fred Cantu, of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and the Tribal Council have taken leadership global warming on impacts of coal fired power plants to Michigan’s economy slowing the rapid grown of green jobs and the health and welfare of all Michigan citizens. "Native Americans in Michigan are the state's original environmentalists and understand that climate change is not confined to geographic boundaries," Granholm said at the summit hosted by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe Of Chippewa Indians, June 11, 2009. "I am pleased that the 12 tribes are working with us to reduce the threat that greenhouse emissions pose to our environment, economy and quality of life."
Twelve thousand young people rally for legislation on climate change
Several thousand demonstrators on Monday urged Congress to pass legislation to reduce greenhouse gases, and they targeted the government's own Capitol power plant as a symbol of the problem. An enthusiastic crowd of mostly young people marched from a park near the Capitol to the small power plant several blocks away, chanting "We don't want the world to boil, no coal, no oil!"
Ahjani Yepa-Sprague, an American Indian who lives in Michigan, said coal is destroying her community's way of life. "Every inland lake in Michigan is contaminated with mercury," she said. "This is the first generation in the history of our people that our children cannot eat fish given to us by the creator."
Update from Washington D.C.
March 02, 2009—Washington DC Capital Climate Action Ahjani Yepa-Sprague—Little River Band of Ottawa Indians / Jemez. We are here today, as the future leaders of the First Nations to ask that the US Congress stop burning coal to provide energy to the Capital. Coal Plants are responsible for CO2 emissions, a major green house gas and the cause of “Global Warming”. Tribal Peoples in Michigan, my Nation, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians are under threat from 8 proposed coal fired power plants, more than any in the United States.
Thousands of Youth Descend on D.C. to Demand New Climate Change Policy
March 2, 2009—Climate scientists, such as NASA’s James Hansen, warn that the only way to mitigate climate change is to completely stop burning coal to make electricity. The message is clear: This “Yes we Can!” attitude fueled more than 24 million people under 29-years-old to vote Nov. 4. And a majority of these people say that they will settle for nothing less than a complete climate change policy shift in Washington. The students’ demands include immediately cutting carbon emissions, an investment in a green economy fueled by clean energy and that policies are aligned with the principles of climate justice. Many students were moved by stories brought from people across the continent in various workshops who discussed the effects of industrialization, capitalism and colonization in their communities, including high cancer rates, demolished mountains, polluted streams, radioactive mines, changes in the flora and fauna and toxic dumps.
12,000+ Students Attend Largest Youth Summit on Climate Change in US History
This weekend, an estimated 12,000 young people were at the D.C. Convention Center for Power Shift ’09, the largest youth summit on climate change in history. College and high school students from all fifty states, all Canadian provinces, as well as a dozen countries, came together to discuss organizing for a clean energy revolution on the local and national levels. We hear some of their voices.
The Carbon Addicts on Capitol Hill
Washington has seen its share of big protests over the years, and most of them center on the White House, the Mall or the Capitol. That will change tomorrow, when the first big protest of the Obama era -- and the first mass civil disobedience against global warming in this country -- will take place against the not-very-scenic backdrop of the Capitol Hill Power Plant, a dirty symbol of the dirtiest business on Earth, the combustion of coal. In that one plant -- owned and operated by our senators and representatives -- you can see all the filth that comes with coal. There are the particulates it spews into the air and hence the lungs of those Washington residents who enjoy breathing. There are the profits it hands to the coal industry, which is literally willing to level mountains across West Virginia and Kentucky to increase its fat margins. And most of all there is the invisible carbon dioxide it spews each day into the atmosphere, drying our forests, melting our glaciers and acidifying our oceans.
Capitol Power Plant Should Switch to 100 Percent Natural Gas
February 26th, 2009—Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent the following letter to the Acting Architect of the Capitol, Stephen T. Ayers, asking that the Capitol Power Plant (CPP) use 100 percent natural gas for its operations. They write, “the switch to natural gas will allow the CPP to dramatically reduce carbon and criteria pollutant emissions, eliminating more than 95 percent of sulfur oxides and at least 50 percent of carbon monoxide…We strongly encourage you to move forward aggressively with us on a comprehensive set of policies for the entire Capitol complex and the entire Legislative Branch to quickly reduce emissions and petroleum consumption through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean alternative fuels.”
Pace of Climate Change Exceeds Estimates
CHICAGO, Feb. 14 -- The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday. "We are basically looking now at a future climate that's beyond anything we've considered seriously in climate model simulations," Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Field, a member of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said emissions from burning fossil fuels since 2000 have largely outpaced the estimates used in the U.N. panel's 2007 reports. The higher emissions are largely the result of the increased burning of coal.
County Chair’s Coal Plant Vote: Conflicted Interest?
ROGERS CITY—An attorney writing on behalf of a local township official has asked the Presque Isle County prosecutor to investigate a possible conflict of interest involving the chairman of the county board of commissioners. The county chairman sits on the board of a utility company that wants to build a coal-fired power plant here; the conflict, according to the attorney, stems from the chairman’s participation in a vote for an official resolution urging the Presque Isle County Planning Commission to grant the company a special use permit (SUP) for the proposed plant.
Wolverine Plan Puts Rate Payers at Financial Risk
Wolverine has recently begun to develop a new baseload power plant in Rogers City. Wolverine's member cooperatives, however, have non-bypassable charges on their distribution tariffs to fund the plant's development. Cost of development and financial risk will be borne by Coop Members who have exclusive power purchase agreements with WPC. Wolverine Power Cooperative ratepayers area also at risk for future carbon regulation costs compared to the region.
Curbing Coal Emissions Alone Might Avert Climate Danger, Say Researchers
The burning of fossil fuels accounts for about 80 percent of the rise of atmospheric CO2 since the pre-industrial era, to its current level of 385 parts per million. However, while there are huge amounts of coal left, predictions about when and how oil and gas production might start running out have proved controversial, and this has made it difficult to anticipate future emissions. To better understand how the emissions might change in the future, climatologist Pushker Kharecha and director James Hansen of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies—a member of Columbia University's Earth Institute--considered a wide range of scenarios. "This is the first paper that explicitly melds the two vital issues of global peak oil production and human-induced climate change," Kharecha said. "We found that because coal is much more plentiful than oil or gas, reducing coal emissions is absolutely essential to avoid dangerous climate change.
Hundreds of Coal Ash Dumps Lack Regulation
Most of the coal byproduct dumps across the United States, including Michigan, are unregulated, although they contain chemicals considered threats to human health.
What Is Worse Than Coal in Your Stocking? Coal Toxins in Your Drinking Water
The massive coal ash spill like we saw yesterday in Tennessee is extremely dangerous with long lasting consequences. You're talking about hundreds of acres of toxic sludge, the residue plants create by burning coal to produce energy, which includes mercury, arsenic and lead, spilling into the tributaries of the Tennessee River, poisoning the water supply for multiple communities, including Chattanooga. And it's a direct result of our continued reliance on a 19th Century industry that makes us sick but uses slick PR terms like "clean coal," happily parroted by politicians of both parties, to maintain viability. “This spill shows that coal can never be ‘clean,’” said Kate Smolski, Senior Legislative Coordinator for Greenpeace. “If the Exxon Valdez was a symbol of pollution 20 years ago, the Tennessee Coal Spill of 2008 is the symbol of it today.” Incredibly, this spill occurs at a time when the Bush Administration is trying to loosen environmental rules that would allow the coal industry to dump rock and dirt from mountaintop mining into nearby streams. In other words, they want to make a disaster like this the norm. Environmental groups are suing to stop them, but what will stop the coal companies from their inattention to basic safety? It is time to take a critical look at companies whose very existence threatens public health and the future of a sustainable planet. And making sure that existence doesn't continue.
December 22, 2008 Coal Ash Spill, Coal can never be clean. It's not possible! - Now imagine clean safe energy from the wind and the sun!
New Energy Secretary Chu: “Coal is my worst nightmare”
President-Elect Obama’s new Secretary of the Department of Energy has not been shy about the fact that the United States has to transition away from coal to survive.
This is Clean Coal?
This spill is over 48 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska! This is the kind of scary thing that people living with coal worry about every day. It's this sort of thing that really makes the proposition of clean coal so absurd. Even if you can scrub all the CO2 out of it, you still have so many other toxic waste products associated with burning coal that have to be stored that carbon emissions are just a part of the problem. How many other holding ponds are out there waiting to burst? This is part of the mountain of stuff that is left over after TVA burns their coal is called coal ash. Coal ash contains mercury and dangerous heavy metals like lead and arsenic - materials found naturally in coal are concentrated in the ash. TVA has a huge mountain of this coal waste material stored in a gigantic pile next to their Harriman (Kingston) power plant, alongside a tributary of the Tennessee River. On Monday morning Dec. 22 around 1:00 am, the earthen retaining wall around this mountain of coal ash failed and approximately 500 million more than one-billion gallons of nasty black coal ash flowed into tributaries of the Tennessee River - the water supply for Chattanooga TN and millions of people living downstream in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. "The really sad thing about this spill is that it's only a small example of the damage coal causes," Smolski added. "Add in global warming, tens of thousands of annual premature deaths from power plant pollution, and hundreds of mountains leveled across Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia, and that's the real picture of coal." "If we're going to prevent disasters like this, we've got to complete the switch to truly clean energy like wind and solar power as rapidly as possible," Smolski said. "We can't afford more coal disasters and more dangerous global warming impacts." MORE COVERAGE | PHOTOS
The Environmental Protection Agency does NOT regulate fly ash as a hazardous waste material... said Laura Nilles, a spokeswoman for the agency.
"Clean Coal" Environmental Disaster
A major environmental disaster occurred yesterday, but few news outlets outside Tennessee appear to be covering it: 2.6 million cubic yards (about 525 million gallons) of fly ash sludge poured out from behind an earthen embankment at the Kingston coal plant (source: The Tennessean). S&R’s Wendy Redal blogged about the October, 2000 Massey Energy coal slurry flood earlier this month - this ashslide is bigger, and while it’s more solid, it still covers 400 acres in up to 6 feet of toxic coal ash. To put this into scale with the Exxon Valdez spill, this coal ash release is presently estimated to be 48 times larger (in volume) and as dangerous. The release is on a tributary of the Tennessee River, which provides water to millions of people in Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky before joining up with the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. MORE COVERAGE
Big Blow Against Coal: Court Reinstates Clean Air Interstate Rule
In a major decision benefiting clean air and public health, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today issued an order that leaves the Clean Air Interstate Rule in effect while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops a new clean air program for power plants. "Today's court decision is a welcome gift for the millions of American's that face serious health threats from power plant pollution. Power plants across the East will reduce millions of tons of smog and soot pollution today while America's new leadership fixes the mistakes made by the Bush Administration," said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel at Environmental Defense Fund.
EPA ruling halts all new coal-fired power plants
In its waning days, the Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has essentially halted all new construction of coal-fired power plants until the government can figure out what to do about climate-change-causing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In a ruling yesterday, the EPA decided that it could no longer grant permits for such new construction until it determines what is needed to limit CO2 emissions. The decision refers back to a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found that the EPA has the authority to regulate emissions of CO2, the most ubiquitous greenhouse gas. In essence, permits cannot be granted until the agency figures out whether or not to force power plants to install technology to control such emissions.
Environmental groups forecast end of coal projects
Environmental groups say a recent federal ruling on regulating greenhouse gases will kill plans for permitting new coal-fired power plants in Michigan. Robert McCann, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said his agency is waiting for official guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before acting on the ruling, made last week by an EPA appeals panel.
Duke Energy Gets Slammed on Coal Power Plant Mercury Emissions
Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers is the self-appointed coal industry leader in the green game -- he even got a nice spread in the New York Times earlier this year on his big ideas for climate legislation. And yet even the greenest of coal groups, Duke Energy isn't even taking basic steps to control harmful emissions like toxic mercury, much less global-warming-causing carbon dioxide. This week a federal judge rejected Duke's attempts to build its new Cliffside coal-fired power plant in North Carolina without modern mercury and other pollution controls. Now Duke must submit this plan for a state process to review its mercury emissions.
High Court Case Tests Power Plants' Water Rules
The U.S. Supreme Court hears an important environmental case Tuesday, testing whether utilities must use the best technology available to minimize harm to the nation's waterways. At issue is the physical impact on fish and the financial impact on companies. The states point out that the utility plants sit on state lakes and rivers and use their water for free. In Rhode Island, for example, the Brayton utility plant takes in a billion gallons of water a day, killing every living thing in the water, says state Assistant Attorney General Tricia Jedele. Environmental lawyer Reid Super adds that utility plants are enormously profitable. "The company never said it couldn't afford it," Super says. "They just said they didn't want to do it."
Environmental groups forecast end of coal projects
Environmental groups say a recent federal ruling on regulating greenhouse gases will kill plans for permitting new coal-fired power plants in Michigan. Robert McCann, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said his agency is waiting for official guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before acting on the ruling, made last week by an EPA appeals panel.
Mining Coal is Irresponsible
Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency approved a last-minute rule change, long sought by the coal industry, to allow mining within 100 feet of rivers and streams. Environmentalists say this change will make it harder for them — and for President-elect Barack Obama's incoming administration — to challenge a controversial form of coal mining called mountaintop removal. That's when coal companies chop off the tops of mountains, mine the coal underneath and dump the leftover rock and dirt into nearby valleys and streams. In a report published this year, the EPA's own scientists found runoff from such mines contained high levels of hazardous chemicals. But in an about-face Tuesday, the agency signed off on the Bush administration's proposal to allow dirt and rocks to be dumped into certain streams. "Our future is being taken from us by these mining companies. I understand there are jobs at stake, but there are ways to get coal out of the ground that don't devastate the environment the way mountaintop removal does." In the good news department, Bank of America announced this week that it would no longer finance mountaintop removal mining, adding to growing pressure on mining companies and on Obama to change how mining is done in Appalachia.
Federal EPA Puts Brakes on MI Coal Plants
LANSING – Clean Energy Now today urged the State of Michigan to stop air permits for coal plants in Michigan following the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruling that carbon dioxide pollution must be factored into the permitting process to protect public health, a move a move that should slam the brakes on Michigan's looming coal rush. By stopping all coal plant permits, Michigan can require the coal industry to fully address carbon dioxide pollution and ways to protect the economy and public health before more plants can be built. Michigan faces the construction of up to eight additional coal plants, more than any other state. "The decision means that the coal industry will now have to live up to its clean coal rhetoric in Michigan and across the nation," said Anne Woiwode, State Director of the Michigan Sierra Club. "By slamming the brakes on new coal plants until we protect against dangerous global warming pollution, we can build a 21st century energy economy, create good-paying jobs and move Michigan forward."
Utah ruling may impede proposed BWL facility
Sierra Club members locally vowed to push for regulation of carbon dioxide emissions just days after a dispute stalled a permit application for a coal-fired plant in Utah. Advertisement The Environmental Protection Agency was blocked last week from issuing a permit after an EPA appeals panel determined agents needed to explain why they didn't require limits on carbon dioxide emissions. That could have ramifications in Michigan, where the Lansing Board of Water & Light has proposed building a $1 billion coal- and biomass-fueled power plant. "The (Lansing) Board of Water & Light ought to say, 'We're going to go the other way for a while and seriously pursue renewable energy and energy efficiency,' " said Anne Woiwode, director of Sierra's Michigan chapter.
Wolverine Plan Puts Rate Payers at Financial Risk
Wolverine has recently begun to develop a new baseload power plant in Rogers City. Wolverine's member cooperatives, however, have non-bypassable charges on their distribution tariffs to fund the plant's development. Cost of development and financial risk will be borne by Coop Members who have exclusive power purchase agreements with WPC. Wolverine Power Cooperative ratepayers area also at risk for future carbon regulation costs compared to the region.
The 10 Worst Corporations in 2008
Although it is too dangerous, too expensive and too centralized to make sense as an energy source, nuclear power won't go away, thanks to equipment makers and utilities that find ways to make the public pay and pay. The "stranded cost" deal gave Constellation (through its affiliate BGE) the right to charge ratepayers $975 million in 1993 dollars (almost $1.5 billion in present dollars). Deregulation also meant that, after an agreed-upon freeze period, BGE was free to raise its rates as it chose. In 2006, it announced a 72 percent rate increase. For residential consumers, this meant they would pay an average of $743 more per year for electricity. Building nuclear plants is extraordinarily expensive (Constellation's planned construction is estimated at $9.6 billion) and takes a long time; construction plans face massive political risks; and the value of electric utilities is small relative to the huge costs of nuclear construction. For banks and investors, this amounts to too much uncertainty - but if the government guarantees loans will be paid back, then there's no risk. Or, stated better, the risk is absorbed entirely by the public. That's the financial risk. The nuclear safety risk is always absorbed, involuntarily, by the public.
Consumers Energy plant are leaking toxics into Saginaw Bay
Two massive ash landfills that hold the concentrated residue of coal burned at a power plant in Bay County have been leaking toxics to the Saginaw Bay for years. The Lone Tree Council, a Bay City area environmental group, uncovered the issue while combing through state records on plans for a new 800-megawatt power plant at the Consumers Energy Karn-Weadock facility in Hampton Township. The group, along with the newly formed Citizens Exploring Clean Energy, is calling for the state Department of Environmental Quality to hold a public meeting to discuss the leakage and related issues with residents. State regulators acknowledge the landfills have been discharging toxics like arsenic, boron and lithium in excess of state standards meant to protect aquatic organisms, drinking water and public health. "We are supposed to be excited about an expanded coal-fired complex and we discover that the company has been historically negligent about its wastes," Lone Tree Chairman Terry Miller said in a news release to be issued today. "Here is one of the two largest utilities in the state showing an incredible level of irresponsibility. How many decades have seen arsenic leaching into the bay, the source of our drinking water?"
A Dirty, Four-Letter Word?
While coal generates about half of America's energy - it's also responsible for about 30% of our global warming pollution. Coal is the problem. And yet, as other industrial Kyoto-Protocol countries are working to cut their global warming emissions, the U.S. coal industry is pushing to build more than 100 new coal-fired power plants across the country.
What the Economy Needs Now Are Good, Green Jobs
A national day of action tomorrow for green jobs is showing that clean energy can be our modern day gold rush. If a coalition of clean energy and social justice groups has its way, renewable energy will be something of a modern day gold rush, providing both clean energy and scores of stable living-wage jobs for urban and rural Americans. Climate change and declining fossil fuel deposits are igniting interest in renewable energy, and many see the possibility of an economic boom in the building and installation of wind turbines, solar panels and geothermal energy systems along with a blossoming industry in green buildings and retrofits.
Proposed Coal Plant Switches Fuels, Stirs Controversy
When Wolverine Power Cooperative came to this small port city in 2006 and proposed building a 600 MW coal-fired power plant in the huge limestone quarry wedged between the town and Lake Huron, officials called their proposal the Wolverine Clean Energy Venture®. However, the commission issued the SUP over objections from three members who said that Wolverine had not adequately answered questions about the coal plant’s environmental impacts. Now, more than two years later, although the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued a draft air emissions permit for the plant on Sept. 23, and announced a public comment period and public hearings on the matter at Rogers City High School on Oct 29 and 30, the vagueness of Wolverine’s county SUP application—and Presque Isle’s speedy approval of it—may be coming back to haunt the company. Placing a coal plant in the big quarry poses thorny storage and disposal challenges. Like much of Presque Isle County, the quarry has highly porous “karst” geology, and it is also located close to the city’s drinking water supply. That poses run-off problems for the plant’s large fuel piles and the boiler ash the company wants to bury—problems that pet coke would intensify.
Rogers City Planning Commission’s Pet Coke Debate
The Presque Isle County Planning Commission has had difficulty deciding whether or not its special use permit (SUP) for the Wolverine Clean Energy Venture actually allows the utility to burn petroleum coke—a waste product from oil refineries. County records indicate that, at the spring, 2006 public hearing regarding Wolverine’s SUP application, then-commissioner Dennis “Sam” Felax asked what, specifically, Wolverine would be allowed to burn. The record shows that Richard Wright and Mike Libby, respectively the planning commission’s chair and vice chair, said that the plant would only be allowed to burn coal. Wording on the SUP application indicates the same thing.
Coke Habit Threatens Rogers City
We’re talking petroleum coke, the nasty, toxic, solidified sludge left behind after oil refineries crack off all the gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, and whatever else they can from crude. It turns out that Wolverine Power Cooperative, which wants to build two 300 MW coal-burning power plant next to Rogers City, also plans to burn lots of petroleum coke there. Petroleum coke contains many more toxic heavy metals than coal, presenting special transportation, storage, and water runoff problems—especially since Wolverine would store it near Lake Huron. It emits much more sulfur and nitrous oxides than coal when burned, presenting new air pollution control problems; it generates highly toxic ash, presenting still more transportation and burial problems—to the tune of about 180 semi-truckloads a day. And it must be burned in a “circulating fluidized bed,” an old technology whose main advantage is that is can burn many things, not just coal.
Rosa Parks Circle
Rosa Parks Circle wrapped in 350-foot petition demanding ban on new coal-fired power plants by Ken Kolker | The Grand Rapids Press Thursday September 25, 2008, 11:40 AM Press Photos/Paul L. Newby IIKendall College of Art and Design students, Sofia Ramirez, 17, and Scott Whitworth, 19, sign their names inside their footprints on the 350-foot petition during a Michigan Clean Energy Now event at Rosa Parks Circle on Thursday morning.
Environmental groups unwrap petition
A coalition of environmental groups displayed a 350-foot banner at Centennial Park on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 25 supporting the regulation of coal-powered carbon emissions. Clean Energy Now wrapped its banner containing about 2,000 signatures and the outlines of footprints of supporters around trees at the park. Speakers addressed their concerns about continued use of coal and the carbon sequestration project being considered by the Holland Board of Public Works. The petition will be presented on Friday, Sept. 26, to Gov. Jennifer Granholm. It asks her to issue an executive order halting the startup of more coal plants until regulations are placed on carbon dioxide emissions. The organization also has collected about 25,000 signatures online.
Michigan Consumers Could See Significant Rate Increases
Federal Government Jeopardizes Billions in Loan Repayment by Authorizing Risky Energy Projects Traverse City: The Sierra Club today voiced its concern that consumers could be faced with higher electric bills if the federal government continues to approve unsound investments in new coal-fired power plants across the nation. Already burdened with $36 billion in unpaid loans, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is now allowing rural utilities to take on billions of dollars in additional debt to build risky new coal-fired power plants, at enormous financial risk to taxpayers. Among those rural utilities is Great Lakes Energy, which already has requested or received $150,675,123 in loans or loan guarantees from the federal government. "Families across the country have already seen their energy rates increase dramatically, in some cases almost double," said Lee Sprague. "Approving these loans will push rates even higher as both the cost of energy and the additional debt are pushed off on ratepayers in Michigan."
Proposal is Faustian bargain: Bad health and degraded environment
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.
Press Statement: MidlandCARES
The costs of coal are steadily rising. This includes the cost of the fuel, transportation, and construction. Already, last December, Mid-Michigan Energy revised the cost of construction for the proposed Midland plant upward from $1.3 billion to $1.9 billion – a 31% increase in only eight months. This is just the beginning. They want the plants to be built before we know the true costs that will likely be borne by the customers. [The Sanzillo Economic Analysis] For this reason, three of the nation’s largest banks have turned their backs on new coal. If Citi Bank, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan Chase are turning away from investing in new coal plants, why aren’t we? [“Wall Street Shows Skepticism Over Coal, Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2008,Jeffrey Ball] Consider the alternative of 5,200 megawatts of wind generation (45 percent of the nation’s total) that was installed in 2007. National growth included $9 billion in investment. This profitable business is growing. [“Winds of Opportunity and Energy Blow in Lansing”, by Peter Luke, Booth Newspapers] The Mid-Michigan ad failed to address the cost of the coming regulations of CO2, which is the leading cause of global climate change. Congress is considering seven carbon-regulation bills, which will raise the per-ton price of coal. As the world demand increases, the cost of coal is already rising at a rate of about 10% per year.
Coal Plant Postponed
Editor: From the Kansas City Pitch: Power Plant was cancelled for construction cost increases similar to those of the proposed Midland Plant
Don’t Get Burned: The Risks of Investing in New Coal-Fired Generating Facilities
With rising construction costs, regulatory uncertainties, environmental concerns and other growing risks, the U.S. utilities with more than 100 proposed new coal-fired power plants now face “comparable risks and uncertainties” to those that derailed the U.S. nuclear power industry in the 1970s, according to a major new report prepared by Synapse Energy Economics, Inc., for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). The report concludes that “coal is losing its appeal as a predictable investment and is instead fraught with uncertainty.”
Loans Program for Coal Plants Suspended
The federal government is suspending a major loan program for coal-fired power plants in rural communities, saying the uncertainties of climate change and rising construction costs make the loans too risky. After issuing $1.3 billion in loans for new plant construction since 2001, none will be issued this year and likely none in 2009, James Newby, assistant administrator for the Rural Utilities Service, a branch of the Department of Agriculture, said Tuesday.
Environmental groups unwrap petition