Mar 25 2010

Dirty Coal

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Sometimes it takes an outsider to state the obvious.

The CEO of British Petroleum, Tony Hayward, this week told an audience at a Washington think-tank, "It's surprising the U.S. is still building coal-fired power plants," given their huge contribution to carbon pollution. "We've got to find a better way to create jobs than preserving coal jobs," he added.

The United Mine Workers the next day called for a boycott of BP’s gas stations.

The huge cost to coal miners, their communities and consumers of low-cost coal power from transitioning to cleaner energy must be acknowledged and addressed in any comprehensive energy and climate legislation. But unless there are radical breakthroughs in mining, combustion and carbon sequestration technologies, the need to shift away from coal cannot be doubted.

In addition to emitting deadly particulates and other pollutants, coal is a notorious source of toxic mercury, an insidious element that can cause brain damage and may increase the chance of learning disabilities in hundreds of thousands of children each year. Only last week, the non-partisan Environmental Integrity Project issued a report noting that toxic mercury emissions increased from 2007 to 2008 at 27 of the top 50 mercury-emitting power plants in the United States. Five of the 10 worst offenders were in Texas, according to EPA data. Hard to believe, but no national regulation exists to control mercury pollution.

Another study, published last month by the journal Environmental Science and Technology, reported that so-called mountaintop removal, the practice in Appalachia of mining coal by blowing up the tops of mountains to bulldoze seams of coal underneath, is dramatically increasing greenhouse gas emissions by releasing carbon stored in trees and soil. Even if carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants could be trapped and stored, coal mining would contribute significantly to global warming, the scientists found. 

What scientists understand and what policy makers do about it are two different things. Bloomberg News reports that the country’s largest coal producer, Peabody Energy, is rated a “buy” by 79 percent of analysts. In contrast, one of the country’s top makers of solar panels, First Solar, is rated a “buy” by only 44 percent of analysts. That tells you all you need to know about the distance we still need to travel in search of cleaner energy.

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