Coal-fired Power Plants
An economic opportunity or a threat to the health and livability of our region?
by Rodney Berry
Kathy Strobel, Research Assistant
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
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| Those promoting coal-fired power plants say: |
“Providing (tax) exemptions for clean-coal facilities makes Kentucky an even more appealing place for the federal government to build the FutureGen project. FutureGen is an outgrowth of this administration’s emphasis on working toward finding real solutions to Kentucky’s energy challenges.”
Ernie Fletcher, Governor
Commonwealth of Kentucky |
“(The FutureGen facility will be) the cleanest coal facility known to man, and it’s going to present this state and this country with an opportunity to utilize our most significant energy resources in a clean, environmentally friendly manner.”
Andrew McNeil
Kentucky Office of Energy Policy |
The proposed Peabody Thoroughbred power plant project “is being overscrutinized from an environmental standpoint.”
Jerry Rhoads
Kentucky Senate
(D-Madisonville) |
“As a member of the legislature’s Subcommittee on Energy, I am very interested in projects that can help Kentucky’s economy benefit from our state’s mineral wealth.”
Denise Harper Angel
(D-Louisville) |
“The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that energy consumption will increase 27 percent through 2030. Substantial coal reserves to meet these growing needs are available in more than 25 states, allowing for widespread coal production, liquefaction and gasification. As a result, the standard of living for all Americans will increase due to lower energy prices, a surge of industrial activity and creation of wealth. America has enough coal reserves to support this robust use for more than a century.”
Greg Boyce
President & CEO,
Peabody Coal |
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| Those concerned about coal-fired power plants say: |
“The biggest problem with our bounty of coal is not what it does to our mountains and the atmosphere, but what it does to our minds. It preserves the illusion that we don’t have to change our lives. Given the profound challenges we face with the end of cheap oil and the arrival of global warming, this is a dangerous fantasy.”
Jeff Goodell
valleywatch.net |
(Reclaimed strip mine sites are characterized by) “a devastated landscape, without topsoil, unrecognizable to anybody who ever lived there, its splendid native plant community replaced by a scraggly growth of alien species. It’s a dirty deal for everybody except the coal companies.”
Wendell Berry
Author, Farmer, Environmentalist |
“The bottom-line is that we have the technology to reduce mercury emission by 90 percent…This administration allows more pollution, longer periods of time for conformance to emission controls, and trading provisions whereby companies that don’t use all their pollution credits can sell them to another company that needs more. Insanity!”
Aloma Dew
Sierra Club Midwest |
“…because of potentially devastating consequences, the risk of abrupt climate change …should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U. S. national security concern.”
2004 Pentagon-commissioned report |
“…there are no specific plans for offsetting the pollution from existing plants.”
Tom FitzGerald
Kentucky Resources Council |
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Which option(s) do you prefer and why? Are there other options? Are there better ways to balance economic and environmental interests?
What are the costs, likely consequences and tradeoffs with regard to each option? Are they worth it? Are we willing to pay higher taxes, electric rates or fuel costs for cleaner air and water?
If increased coal production and more coal-fired power plants are one way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, should we compromise environmental standards to position coal to meet this challenge?
What should be more important to communities: jobs that pay well or a healthy, attractive, appealing environment?
The FutureGen plant, proposed for a site on the Henderson County-Daviess County line, is promoted as the first step in making Kentucky “the Silicon Valley of energy research.” The “sequestration” technology proposed will involve injecting carbon dioxide emissions 7,400 feet underground. The site is near the New Madrid fault. Should we be concerned of leakage if (or when) an earthquake occurs in the region?
When Kentucky coal is mined and burned to generate electricity that is shipped to others states, Kentuckians receive the jobs, a steadier market for coal and the overall economic impact that a major investment brings to an area. Is this worth what those who live nearby must endure?
What can each of us do to contribute to energy conservation? Does your home, church or workplace have an energy efficiency plan?
