Consumers Energy suspends plans to build $2 billion coal plant
Consumers Energy has suspended its plans to build its first coal plant in 30 years. The Jackson-based utility announced in September 2007 it wanted to build the $2 billion, 830-megawatt coal plant near Bay City, saying the state needed the power and jobs the facility would generate. But Mengebier, citing a reduced demand for electricity, cheap natural gas and excess electric capacity in the Midwest market, said company leaders could not make the economic case for it as they prepared to file a Certificate of Necessity later this summer with the Michigan Public Service Commission.
Wolverine Power's air quality permit denied by DNRE
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) today denied Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative’s air quality Permit to Install application for a new 600 megawatt power plant, fueled primarily by petroleum coke and coal, in Rogers City. The decision follows a thorough review of the permit application under state and federal law. The state’s decision is based on findings of the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), which said the company failed to demonstrate the plant was needed to meet future supply needs. The MPSC staff also determined that building the proposed plant would increase electricity rates paid by average residential customers by 59.2 percent, costing the average residential customer $76.95 more each month. Only Hawaii has a higher average kilowatt-hour rate. “We are protecting hundreds of thousands of Michigan homeowners, businesses, and farmers from paying a whopping increase in their electric bills, which would have been among the highest in the nation,” Governor Jennifer M. Granholm said. “The cost of doing business in Michigan would have skyrocketed, and despite the short-term gain from its construction, this project would have been a job-killer and a roadblock in our efforts to bring new economic development investments to Michigan.”
Groups Sharply Criticize Granholm-Cherry Administration Approval of Coal Plant Today's DEQ’s decision strikes blow to clean energy jobs
LANSING – Clean energy and environmental groups today criticized a decision today by Governor Granholm’s Department of Environmental Quality approving a controversial permit for a coal plant project in Bay City, a move that strikes a blow to clean energy investments and jobs in Michigan. The DEQ is expected to put off a decision on a pending permit application for a smaller coal plant in Rogers City.
“We are disappointed by the failure of Governor Granholm to keep her promise to move Michigan toward a clean energy economy. Thousands committed to Michigan’s future are rallying to fight this badly flawed decision at every step to get Michigan back on track toward a clean energy economy,” Sierra Club Michigan Chapter Director Anne Woiwode said.. “Governor Granholm’s DEQ had an important decision to make today and it failed the test of leadership. Building a coal plant Michigan doesn’t need near Bay City will saddle ratepayers with terrible costs and waste investors’ money. By approving the Bay City plant, the Granholm Administration will set back Michigan’s efforts to build a clean energy economy that can create good-paying jobs.”
The DEQ’s decision comes despite the Michigan Public Service Commission staff conclusion that Consumers Energy does not need a new baseload power plant until at least 2022, and that any electricity needs could be met through available cleaner sources, including efficiency and renewables. The MPSC staff also concluded that the proposed coal plant in Rogers City, requested by Wolverine Power, was not needed at all. The recommendations stemmed from the failure of the utilities to show that Michigan needs more energy in coming years. The utilities also failed to counter growing evidence that renewable energy – and not dirty coal – could meet future needs.
The Clean Air Act permit for a new Consumers' Bay City coal plant is expected to include language involving the decommissioning of older coal plants by Consumers, but environmental groups say the permit decision does nothing to push Consumers toward clean energy alternatives. “Michigan is heading in the wrong direction with this unfortunate decision,” Clean Water Action Michigan Director Cyndi Roper said. “The federal government has declared coal pollutants a threat to human health. Every other state is investing in clean energy, creating jobs and turning away from coal. Michigan, on the other hand, is looking to the past and this decision threatens to keep us in the energy Dark Ages."
“The citizens of Michigan and the Bay City area will pay a steep price for this ill-advised decision,” Roper said. “The citizens of Michigan have said they don’t want any more coal plants and they will not accept half-measures. We will continue our fight. Michigan wants more jobs, not more coal plants that will empty our pockets and put our economic future at risk.”
Thousands of citizens had voiced opposition to the development of new dirty coal plants in Michigan, including the ones in Rogers City and Bay City. Citizens groups have repeatedly called on the government to reject permits to build new plants and invest instead in clean energy. According to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Michigan can meet its energy needs through a combination of wind power, solar and other renewable energy sources coupled with aggressive energy efficiency programs.[1] Among the NRDC’s findings:
Energy efficiency program alone could save Michigan $3 billion in electricity costs over the next 20 years.
Michigan’s previous energy plan, written in 2007, is out of date, with unrealistic projections of future electrical demand, limited implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy, and reliance on outdated 20th century coal technologies.
Clean renewable energy is less expensive, cleaner, faster, more economically robust, and creates more jobs in Michigan than a 20th century plan based on new but obsolete large power plants driven by fossil fuels.
SPECIAL REPORT
No Coal Powered Plants Required in Michigan: MPSC Staff’s reports to DEQ regarding “Need’ on Wolverine and Consumers
The Michigan Public Service Commission has just issued what could well turn out to be death notices for Michigan coal-fired power plants. I say “could well turn out to be” because the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will make the final decision on each plant; MDEQ asked the MPSC to determine whether there was actually a demand for the electricity from either one. A few hours ago, MPSC said, “No, they don’t need that power.”
Congratulations, No New Coal Plants in 2009
No new coal plants broke ground in 2009, a result of a combination of widespread public opposition, rising costs, increasing financial risks and concerns over future carbon regulations. In 2009 twenty-six coal-fired power plants—which would have emitted 146 million tons of carbon dioxide annually– were defeated or abandoned, the largest number of new coal plants defeated since the coal rush began in 2001. This progress opens the way for a transition to a clean energy economy, including a 22.5% increase in electricity generated from wind between 2008 and 2009. Total coal use is down in 2009 according to the , as the Obama administration is considering new regulations for the safe disposal of coal ash, and limiting emissions of mercury, soot, smog and global warming pollution from coal plants. Since the beginning of the coal rush in 2001 when there were more than 150 proposed coal plants announced, 111 proposed new coal plants have been defeated or abandoned, keeping over 450 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the air each year. Tens of thousands of concerned citizens across the country have joined the beyond coal movement, helping bring about tangible change in the way America is powered.
EPA Issues Carbon-Emissions Rule
07-Dec-2009—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared carbon dioxide a health hazard today, paving the way for new regulation of emissions from sources such as power plants, factories, cars and trucks. The decision allows the agency to issue rules to govern heat-trapping pollution that many scientists say may lead to irreversible climate shifts. The EPA announced the decision in a statement that said the science “overwhelmingly” supports the finding. EPA
Holland Loses Federal Energy Grant
Holland, MI — The U.S. Department of Energy’s decision not to extend a $380 million federal grant for a carbon-capture project in Holland eliminates the leading motivation for the Holland Board of Public Works to expand its James De Young Power Plant by constructing a new 78 megawatt generator. Now, with the carbon-capture option off the table and Michigan mired in a deep and prolonged recession, can such a major expansion be justified? Estimates of future power demand made just a few years ago now seem outdated. (The Michigan Public Services Commission in 2007 projected 1.4 percent annual growth in the state, while the BPW based its plans on a 1.3 percent annual rate locally.) Power demand today is falling, not rising. Once a topic limited largely to environmentalists, saving energy is on everyone’s minds these days; whether it’s a car or an appliance or home heating, energy costs are now factored into countless consumer decisions. Almost every other home appliance on the market consumes far less energy than models made a decade ago and businesses are routinely turning to “green building” designs. We don’t think this is a fad — conservation is now part of our culture. At the same time, the economy in Holland and across the state stubbornly refuses to rebound.
Trouble in store
A RECENT American television advertisement features a series of trustworthy-looking individuals affirming their faith in the potential of “clean coal”. One by one, a sensible old lady in a hat, a lab-coated scientist standing by a microscope, a fresh-faced young schoolteacher, a weather-beaten farmer and a can-do machinist face the camera square-on and declare, “I believe.” The idea that clean coal, or to be more specific, a technology known as carbon capture and storage (CCS), will save the world from global warming has become something of an article of faith among policymakers too. Despite all this enthusiasm, however, there is not a single big power plant using CCS anywhere in the world. Environmentalist groups worry that captured carbon will eventually leak. In short, the world’s leaders are counting on a fix for climate change that is at best uncertain and at worst unworkable. [EDITOR: C02 is only one of the gases emited when burning coal. Coal fueled power plants generate enormous amounts of toxic waste that far exceed C02 emmissions and are of a greater concern to living organisms, including people. The bottom line is that there are more sensible green energy technologies that offer more hope. If only politicians can just learn to say NO to cash from coal industry lobbyists.]
Statewide Group Targets Consumers Energy CEO
20-Nov-2009—Today in Grand Rapids people gathered in front of the Consumers Energy offices in Wyoming, Michigan to kick-off a new campaign targeting David Joos, CEO of Consumers Energy. The Press Conference was one of many throughout the state, where consumers, activists and environmental organization came together to say no to more coal plants that are proposed in Michigan. Erin Knott with Michigan Citizen Action cited a recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which supports the idea that Michigan can meet its energy needs through a combination of renewable sources. Some of the finds from this study are:
* Energy efficiency programs could save Michigan $3 billion in electricity costs over the next 20 years.
* Michigan’s previous energy plan, written in 2007, is out of date, with unrealistic projections of future electrical demand, limited implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy, and reliance on outdated 20th century coal technologies.
* Clean renewable energy is less expensive, cleaner, faster, more economically robust, and creates more jobs in Michigan than a 20th century plan based on new but obsolete large power plants driven by fossil fuels.
Legislature is lost on electric policy
Michigan residents are well-versed at this point in the budgetary ineptitude of their state legislators. An example: Two state representatives want Gov. Jennifer Granholm to get out of the way so two coal-fired power plants can be built - even though the power plants aren't needed. That's the conclusion of the Public Service Commission staff. They looked over proposals to build coal-fired power plants near Rogers City and Essexville. Michigan doesn't need the new generation. With struggling Michigan families potentially facing such costs, [and record rate increases] shouldn't the default position be not to build power plants unless they are absolutely needed?
Michigan issues air permit for new CMS coal plant
Tue Dec 29, 2009—Consumers Energy's proposed 830-megawatt coal-fired power plant at the Karn/Weadock complex in Michigan has moved a step closer to construction after the state issued an air permit for the project, the company said Tuesday. Consumers, a unit of Jackson, Michigan-based CMS Energy Corp (CMS.N), said it would retire up to seven older coal-fired units -- five when the new plant enters service and another two depending on the needs of its 1.8 million Michigan customers. The company has not identified the older coal plants to be retired but planned to do so when it files for a certificate of necessity with the Michigan Public Service Commission in 2010, a spokesman told Reuters. The new plant is expected to cost more than $2 billion and enter service in 2017.
[Editor: This plant is far from being constructed however. Energy consumption is way down in Michigan. There are many other factors that play against the construction of this plant that we will continue to cover on these pages.]
Rogers City—While Wolverine Power awaits word on its major permit to build a coal fueled power plant in Rogers City, the permit to install or air quality permit, the cooperative has received word on another permit in the works. The Type III landfill permit is due by March 15, 2010. In order to receive input on the proposed landfill, a public hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010, at the Rogers City High School gymnasium. A legal notice of the hearing will be published in the Advance in January. As the DEQ has done previously with the air quality permit, an informal information session is planned from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., the day of the hearing where staff from the Waste and Hazardous Materials Division (WHMD) of the DEQ will be available to answer questions.
State Readies Rogers City Coal Ash Hearing | CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORTS
Rogers City resident Joseph Veselenak likes to tell how, decades ago, the school’s football team showed up for practice one day and encountered a bizarre sight. A goal post was tilting crazily: One end of it was literally sinking into the ground. Mr. Veselenak, who coached Rogers City football in the late 1960s and through the ‘70s, immediately knew what the problem was. The goal post was slowly being swallowed by a rare form of geology that is actually quite common in Presque Isle County, where Rogers City is located: a blend of highly porous limestone, sinkholes, and underground caves, streams, and aquifers known collectively as “karst geology.”
In compliance with the Governor’s Executive Order 2009 -2, the Holland Board of Public Works has submitted its Electric Generating Alternatives Analysis (EGAA.) It is clear that HBPW’s EGAA Filing does not come close to satisfying the standards set by that Order, of showing that “feasible and prudent alternatives” to the proposed coal-fired power plant are not available. As explained in the Schlissel Report. HBPW ignores significant uncertainties and risks associated with building a new coal-fired power plant including:
• Uncertainty as to the availability of financing in capital markets and financing costs.
• Uncertainty as to the greenhouse gas emissions reductions that ultimately will be required as a result of federal, regional or state action, and the cost of compliance with likely future regulations.
• Uncertainty as to whether post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration will prove to be technically viable as a retrofit for new coal plants like HBPW’s proposed CFB coal plant.
• Uncertainty as to the costs and economic viability of post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration for coal plants, if it does prove technically viable.
• Uncertainty as to coal power plant construction costs and schedules.
• Uncertainty as to whether the federal government will adopt a national Renewable and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard. • Uncertainty as to future coal prices and whether there will be supply disruptions that will affect plant performance and fuel prices.
• Uncertainty about the impact of more stringent regulations for current criteria pollutants (such as NOx, SO2 and mercury).
• Uncertainty about the impact of new rules regarding the storage and management of coal combustion wastes.
In addition, the EGAA Filing overstates HBPW’s need for new generation and unreasonably assumes that its members will not be able to achieve more than 0.2 percent annual incremental energy efficiency savings after the year 2015.
In sum, HBPW underestimates the costs of new coal-fired generation, overstates its need, and underestimates the availability of energy efficiency, renewables, natural gas, and purchased power to meet its demand. As such, the Michigan PSC should find that HBPW has not demonstrated a need for a new coal-fired power plant and that several less expensive and more environmentally beneficial alternatives exist to fill all or some of any new capacity need including: energy efficiency and load management; renewable resources; or a combination of a number of alternatives including purchased power, and recommend that Michigan DNRE deny HBPW’s permit application for a new coal-fired power plant.
Feds award $2.7M for Wolverine carbon project
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – An electric power co-op that wants to build a coal-fired plant in northern Michigan has received a $2.7 million federal grant for a project designed to prevent industrial carbon dioxide from contributing to climate change, officials said Tuesday. The Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative Inc. project is among 12 funded by the Department of Energy to test technologies that capture carbon dioxide and store it underground instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, where it traps heat and warms the planet. Carbon capture will not make the proposed Rogers City facility more acceptable to environmentalists who oppose more coal-fired plants in Michigan, said Lee Sprague, manager of the Sierra Club's Clean Energy Campaign. "Even if this works, the cost is going to be staggering," Sprague said. "It was premature to award taxpayer money to a plant that hasn't even been approved." The $2.7 million grant was for preliminary design work that can be done without the state air permit, Energy Department spokeswoman Tiffany Edwards said. But Wolverine Power would need the permit to get more federal funding and take the project further. Staffers with the Michigan Public Service Commission have questioned the need for the plant citing the fact that Michigan does not need additional energy producing capacity in the foreseeable future. [Editor: Building a new power plant for the sake of jobs would cause a considerable increaase the rates paid by consumers. Michigan already has a number of clean natural gas fueled power plants that have been paid for a constructed. They merely need to be fired up to produce electricity at a cost far below building new power plants that only serve to make a few wealthy individuals richer.]
100 Coal Plants Prevented or Abandoned, Including 3 in MichiganPDF
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.
House Passes Climate Bill
On a 219 to 212 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act, the most important environmental and energy legislation in our nation's history. You helped! The bill that emerged from the House has the fundamental structure we need to significantly reduce carbon pollution while growing the economy. It puts strong cap on emissions and reorients our energy market to make low-carbon power the goal. It ensures that utility rates will stay affordable and a competitive playing field for U.S. companies. Today’s vote opens the door for President Obama to sign comprehensive climate legislation into law this year.
Carbon Capture Can't Make Coal Clean
If coal is so readily available, why are we detonating the equivalent of 15,000 tons of ammonium nitrate (roughly the equivalent of one Hiroshima bomb) each week to get it? Repairing the damage from this "cheap coal" extraction will cost taxpayers trillions of dollars. My great fear is that by legitimizing the most destructive fuel on earth, we may be stepping full on into a nightmare of "clean coal" -- a twisted world order in which hundreds of thousands of unnecessary human deaths and unprecedented environmental catastrophe are all justified in the pursuit of "cheap" coal. So let me proclaim it: Carbon capture is perhaps the worst possible economic investment we could make right now (maybe only second to liquefying coal to replace gasoline, the folly of which cannot even be put into words).
Federal Appeals Court Orders EPA to Review Pollution Limit
A federal court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider limits on particulate air pollution, marking another victory for states and environmental groups which have challenged Bush administration environmental rules favored by industry.
Lethal air pollution booms
International experts are warning that potentially lethal air pollution has boomed in fast-growing big cities. The World Health Organization estimates that about two million people die prematurely every year as a result of air pollution, while many more suffer from breathing ailments, heart disease, lung infections and even cancer. Fine particles or microscopic dust from coal or wood fires and unfiltered diesel engines are rated as one of the most lethal forms or air pollution caused by industry, transport, household heating, cooking and coal or oil-fired power stations.
$500 million for green jobs training!
These green investments are critical to creating green jobs and are a vital down payment on a green collar economy. That's why President Obama and Congress passed a bold, green recovery package that includes $500 million for green job training. Now our challenge is to direct those millions and billions of dollars towards the communities that are most in need, and the programs that are most effective. Thanks to our collective efforts, this recovery package will make a significant investment in people and the planet.
Near Unanimous Opposition to Proposed Coal Burning Power
Holland—Last night the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) opened a two-day public hearing on the proposed coal burning power plant for Holland, Michigan. The plant would cost an estimated $240 million without including the sequestering of carbon produced by the plant. A steady stream of Holland residents stepped up to the microphone to express their opposition to the proposed power plant. Many of them expressed concern over pollution, particularly air pollution that will contribute to increased asthma. One woman, who says she suffers from asthma, was convinced that her asthma is a direct result of the existing coal burning power plant based in Holland. A senior citizen who can see the smokestacks from the current power plant says that he and the other senior citizens "are at risk of contracting respiratory problems" because of their proximity to the coal burning plant. Other Holland residents said that renewable energy should be promoted and produced and that the City of Holland should advocate for a reduction of energy consumption by the residents and businesses of the community. Possibly the most compelling speakers during the public hearing were from the Native American community. Each of the Native speakers addressed the issue of mercury contamination that comes with coal burning and said that it disproportionately impacts Native people since they eat more local fish--much of which have high levels of mercury in Michigan. Another Native speaker criticized the DEQ for not conducting "an environmental justice assessment" and said that they felt like this was another example of how the government "does care about the well being of native people."
How Much Power Does Consumers Need?
Groups list 37 problems with utility’s claim for a new coal plant. Falling demand for electricity may make it difficult for Consumers Energy to get permission to build a new coal plant near Bay City. Last month, Consumers Energy drew fire for proposing a surprisingly high monthly customer surcharge to help pay for its mandated shift toward more renewable energy. Clean-energy advocates and some businesses complained to the state that the surcharge was far too pricey. The regulators agreed, ordered Consumers to cut the proposed monthly fee by 16.6 percent, and warned that they would keep a close eye on the company’s expense estimates. Now Consumers is catching more heat, this time for its estimate of how much power it will need to make in the coming years to keep its customers’ lights on. The group "Clean Energy Now" said the analysis omitted important data that shows Consumers does not need to build the new plant, and that building it would interfere with increasingly successful efforts to create tens of thousands of green-energy manufacturing jobs in the state.
The Dirty Lie | VIDEOS
The truth is that once you factor in all the true costs, the moonscapes left by mining practices, the deaths of coal miners because industry lobbyists have gutted mine safety regulations, the neurological damage to our future generations from mercury contaminated fish, the asthmatic children and heart attack victims, those who have suffered from strokes or cancer as a result of breathing and drinking pollution from coal, and more, coal is the most expensive form of energy on the planet.
Tribal member takes Coal fight to DC
I am a member of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians located in Manistee MI. Five years ago, my Tribe fought off a coal fired power plant that threatened to harm our peoples through CO2 emissions, a major greenhouse gas, and toxic pollution that threatens the health and welfare of our peoples disproportionately to others in MI.
Take green path, US business warned
Businesses must not sink money into high-carbon infrastructure unless they are willing to lose their investments within a few years, the US lead negotiator on climate change has warned. Investors should take note, he warned, that high emissions must be curbed, which would hurt businesses that failed to embark now on a low-carbon path. "How good will the business judgment of companies that make high-carbon choices now look in five, 10, 20 years, when it becomes clear that heavily polluting infrastructure has become deadly and must be phased out before the end of its useful life?" Companies investing in such goods and services - such as coal-fired power plants and gas-guzzling cars - could start to incur heavy economic penalties in the near future for their greenhouse gas output.
Clean Energy, Good Jobs Should Go Hand in Hand
Twenty-five major leaders from government, business, labor and activist organizations—including AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore—met on Monday to discuss strategies for boosting the nation’s renewable energy production, reducing dependence on foreign oil and ensuring that “green jobs” are quality jobs.
“I don't think there's another industry out there that has had the growth in manufacturing operations in the U.S. that wind energy has ...”
Wind power growth means manufacturing opportunity for Michigan
The decline of manufacturing in Michigan and the United States has closely followed globalization and its downhill trajectory toward sourcing components and assembly from low-cost nations like China and Mexico. But the gradual emergence of a domestic U.S. wind energy industry appears to be countering that trend by coupling concerns over economic and environmental sustainability with logistic practicalities. "The directive we have in my group is to look for localized content 100 percent. So sourcing America for America," said Gene Cuenot, a purchaser for Vestas' nacelles division. Last year marked the best year ever for the U.S. wind industry, which recently surpassed Germany as the largest market for installed wind turbines, said Jim Walker, president of the American Wind Energy Association. Total investments in wind energy projects in the U.S., which made up 42 percent of all power capacity installed, grew from $700 million in 2004 to nearly $18 billion last year. That surge in domestic wind capacity led to an addition of 35,000 jobs and more than 70 new manufacturing plants. That surge in domestic wind capacity led to an addition of 35,000 jobs and more than 70 new manufacturing plants. Michigan now has more than 35 companies supplying components or services to the wind energy industry, a number that is quickly growing, said Dan Radomski, vice president for industry services for Detroit-based NextEnergy.
Coal Industry Hands Out Pink Slips While Green Collar Jobs Take Off
Washington, D.C.-A transition to renewable energy sources promises significant global job gains at a time when the coal industry has been hemorrhaging jobs for years, according to the latest Vital Signs Update released by the Worldwatch Institute. The coal, oil, and natural gas industries require steadily fewer jobs as high-cost production equipment takes the place of human capital. Many hundreds of thousands of coal mining jobs have been shed in China, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and South Africa during the last two decades, sometimes in the face of expanding production. In the United States alone, coal industry employment has fallen by half in the last 20 years, despite a one-third increase in production. "Renewables are poised to tackle our energy crisis and create millions of new jobs worldwide," according to Worldwatch Senior Researcher Michael Renner. "Meanwhile, fossil fuel jobs are increasingly becoming fossils themselves, as coal mining communities and others worry about their livelihoods."
Coal for dummies: Study finds that prenatal exposure to coal-plant emissions impedes neurodevelopment
A major new study by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health finds:
Closing coal-fired power plants can have a direct, positive impact on children's cognitive development and health ...
Prenatal exposure to coal-burning emissions was associated with significantly lower average developmental scores and reduced motor development at age two. In the second unexposed group, these adverse effects were no longer observed; and the frequency of delayed motor developmental was significantly reduced.
The study provides yet more evidence -- if any were needed -- that we need to ban coal plants: "elimination of prenatal exposure to coal-burning emissions resulted in measurable benefits to children's development." This is a sophisticated study, which used molecular markers to directly track exposure to coal plant emissions.
Jobs in Renewable Energy Expanding
Driven by the gathering sense of a climate crisis, the notion of "green jobs"-especially in the renewable energy sector-is now receiving unprecedented attention. Currently about 2.3 million people worldwide work either directly in renewables or indirectly in supplier industries.1 Given incomplete data, this is in all likelihood a conservative figure. The wind power industry employs some 300,000 people, the solar photovoltaics (PV) sector accounts for an estimated 170,000 jobs, and the solar thermal industry, at least 624,000.2 More than 1 million jobs are found in the biomass and biofuels sector.3 Small-scale hydropower and geothermal energy are far smaller employers.
Coal 101
The use of coal in combustion - whether to generate electricity or heat, or for use in steel or cement manufacturing - creates a number of environmental challenges. MORE: CLEAN ENERGY NOW
Coal for dummies: Study finds that prenatal exposure to coal-plant emissions impedes neurodevelopment