PEACE HOUSE DIRECTOR OPPOSES PROPOSED COAL BURNING PLANT
Presentation at public hearings before the Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners:
Bob Anthony / Jeff Cloud / Jim Roth
Monday, July 30, 2007
Commissioners,
You must decline the request relating to a new coal-fired plant in Oklahoma. Why? Coal is an environmental and health hazard; other sources of energy are cleaner and will soon be cheaper. I will leave behind copies of articles supporting the points I will make here briefly:
- Burning coal produces 40% of the gases causing global warming.
- Burning coal releases pollutants causing cancer and asthma, and which render fishing unsafe in thousands of American rivers and lakes.
- Mining coal causes environmental damage as mountains are leveled and dumped into valleys, in violation of federal law. Lawsuits against the coal industry may soon cause drastic increases in the price of coal.
On this planet, the wealthiest 20% of humanity --- that's us --- uses 80% of the world's resources, which means that the “bottom 80%” of humanity uses only 20% of the resources. Our consumption is 16 times per person that of the bottom 80%. This is unjust, of course. But more, it is not sustainable even as things stand … and the other 80% wants to achieve our consumption levels! The earth is at risk.
So, we in the United States must demand of policy-makers and industry that technologies be implemented which demonstrate that comfortable lives like ours can be achieved using 20% of the energy and resources we currently consume.
The real resistance to this is political. Technologically, it can be done. Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 20% of the electricity used by regular bulbs. High efficiency electric motors reduce industrial demand. The recycling of wastes conserves resources AND energy (recycling aluminum uses only 5% of the electricity to produce new aluminum). Some new buildings can heat and cool themselves. We will soon see cars that get 200 miles to the gallon. And we will see a resurgence of railroad transportation, which uses only 20% of the fuel of typical 18-wheeler (and reducing heavy truck traffic on highways will dramatically extend their useful lives).
Amory Lovins is a former nuclear energy engineer who saw, 30 years ago, that a smart energy future should include efficiency, conservation, and environmentally sustainable energy production. His Rocky Mountain Institute is a 6000-square-foot building in Snowmass, Colorado. He reports that the electricity bill is $5 a month.
Norway has made a national commitment to be totally free from fossil fuel use by 2020. That means no coal, oil, or natural gas use in 14 years.
These technologies make it possible to predict that Oklahoma can have population growth and business growth, even as our state uses less and less energy.
Federal tax and economic incentives can get people to do almost anything, even if it makes no sense. The impetus now to build new coal-fired plants has a similar federal boost, doesn't it? The 2005 US Energy Bill was written behind closed doors by folks who believed the US should quickly build 150 coal-fired plants, ostensibly for the purpose of energy independence from foreign oil.
Energy independence really is possible for the United States, even supporting growth … and it can be environmentally clean and economically affordable as well.
If a coal-fired plant makes no sense today, it makes even less sense to ask rate-payers to pony up in advance the cost of building a plant which will be obsolete before it ever produces a single Watt.
Nathaniel Batchelder, Director
