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Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumThree articles on shutting down coal plants
A Big New Milestone Reached In Coal Retirement, Public Health, Climate Disruption
Millions of Americans are breathing easier these days as we announce that the Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign has crossed the halfway mark toward meeting our goal of securing the retirement of a third of the nation's coal-fired power.
It's only been a year and a half since Bloomberg Philanthropies gave a $50 million grant to the Sierra Club to support the efforts of the Beyond Coal campaign. As part of this partnership, the Sierra Club set the ambitious goal of winning commitments to retire 105,000 megawatts of coal -- about one-third of U.S. coal plants -- by 2015.
These coal plants are the nation's number one source of the carbon pollution that is disrupting our climate, the sulfur pollution that causes heart attacks and premature death, and the mercury pollution that harms babies in the womb.
Today, thanks to the hard work of millions of people and dozens of partner organizations, our children, our grandparents, our friends, our neighbors, and so many others are enjoying cleaner air and water, and U.S. carbon emissions are at a two-decade low. Earlier this week, we announced the three coal retirements by American Electric Power that put us across this halfway mark...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-anne-hitt/a-big-new-milestone-reach_b_2791075.html?utm_hp_ref=energy
Millions of Americans are breathing easier these days as we announce that the Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign has crossed the halfway mark toward meeting our goal of securing the retirement of a third of the nation's coal-fired power.
It's only been a year and a half since Bloomberg Philanthropies gave a $50 million grant to the Sierra Club to support the efforts of the Beyond Coal campaign. As part of this partnership, the Sierra Club set the ambitious goal of winning commitments to retire 105,000 megawatts of coal -- about one-third of U.S. coal plants -- by 2015.
These coal plants are the nation's number one source of the carbon pollution that is disrupting our climate, the sulfur pollution that causes heart attacks and premature death, and the mercury pollution that harms babies in the womb.
Today, thanks to the hard work of millions of people and dozens of partner organizations, our children, our grandparents, our friends, our neighbors, and so many others are enjoying cleaner air and water, and U.S. carbon emissions are at a two-decade low. Earlier this week, we announced the three coal retirements by American Electric Power that put us across this halfway mark...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-anne-hitt/a-big-new-milestone-reach_b_2791075.html?utm_hp_ref=energy
U.S. Coal Decline Driven By Free Market, Despite Industry Opposition To Obama
By Daniel Trotta
BEALLSVILLE, Ohio, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Leon Lieser has been a coal miner 49 years, his bent fingers testament to his first job, loading coal by hand into a bucket. Mining also led to a hip replacement and a knee replacement. He loves his job and his industry, despite what it has done to his body.
"It's a way of life. It's a proud life," said Lieser, 66.
It may also be doomed. Lieser's boss, Robert Murray, chief executive of Murray Energy Corp, said he fears for the end of coal, prodded by a U.S. president who has promoted wind and solar power while cracking down on emissions from coal-fired power plants.
"There are no coal-fired plants being built. Mr. Obama took care of that. I think we're totally eliminated by 2035," said Murray, 73, a prominent advocate for his industry and a fund-raiser for Republican Party causes.
Despite Murray's protestations, the decline of the coal industry is being driven by the free market. U.S. natural gas production rose 16 percent from November 2008 to November 2012, creating a cheap supply that has made gas-generated electricity more competitive than that from coal...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/us-coal-decline_n_2621904.html?utm_hp_ref=energy
By Daniel Trotta
BEALLSVILLE, Ohio, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Leon Lieser has been a coal miner 49 years, his bent fingers testament to his first job, loading coal by hand into a bucket. Mining also led to a hip replacement and a knee replacement. He loves his job and his industry, despite what it has done to his body.
"It's a way of life. It's a proud life," said Lieser, 66.
It may also be doomed. Lieser's boss, Robert Murray, chief executive of Murray Energy Corp, said he fears for the end of coal, prodded by a U.S. president who has promoted wind and solar power while cracking down on emissions from coal-fired power plants.
"There are no coal-fired plants being built. Mr. Obama took care of that. I think we're totally eliminated by 2035," said Murray, 73, a prominent advocate for his industry and a fund-raiser for Republican Party causes.
Despite Murray's protestations, the decline of the coal industry is being driven by the free market. U.S. natural gas production rose 16 percent from November 2008 to November 2012, creating a cheap supply that has made gas-generated electricity more competitive than that from coal...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/us-coal-decline_n_2621904.html?utm_hp_ref=energy
Coal Kills -- Time to Kill Coal
A report published today by Europe's Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) is a powerful wake-up call about the dangers of coal-fired power. The Unpaid Health Bill: How Coal Power Plants Make Us Sick claims to provide the "first ever economic assessment of the health costs associated with air pollution from coal power plants in Europe," and mirrors the findings of a comparable 2010 report about the U.S. published by the Clean Air Task Force. The simple take-home message of these reports? Coal kills, and is costing us an arm and a leg (or perhaps more to the point, a heart and a lung).
The EU study summarizes its main findings with a dizzying string of facts and figures:
I can only imagine what these statistics would look like if they incorporated the additional impacts from coal mining, or from coal's contribution to climate change. The 2012 Climate Vulnerability Monitor provides some hints on that score.
But while I applaud HEAL for drawing attention to the economic costs, because of course cost-benefit analysis lies at the core of government policymaking, I'm far more incensed by the human suffering that these numbers imply...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-rigg/coal-kills----time-to-kil_b_2826552.html?utm_hp_ref=energy
A report published today by Europe's Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) is a powerful wake-up call about the dangers of coal-fired power. The Unpaid Health Bill: How Coal Power Plants Make Us Sick claims to provide the "first ever economic assessment of the health costs associated with air pollution from coal power plants in Europe," and mirrors the findings of a comparable 2010 report about the U.S. published by the Clean Air Task Force. The simple take-home message of these reports? Coal kills, and is costing us an arm and a leg (or perhaps more to the point, a heart and a lung).
The EU study summarizes its main findings with a dizzying string of facts and figures:
Emissions from coal power plants in Europe contribute significantly to the burden of disease from environmental pollution. The brand-new figures published in this report show that European Union-wide impacts amount to more than 18,200 premature deaths, about 8,500 new cases of chronic bronchitis, and over 4 million lost working days each year. The economic costs of the health impacts from coal combustion in Europe are estimated at up to 42.8 billion per year. Adding emissions from coal power plants in Croatia, Serbia and Turkey, the figures for mortality increase to 23,300 premature deaths, or 250,600 life years lost, while the total costs are up to 54.7 billion annually.
I can only imagine what these statistics would look like if they incorporated the additional impacts from coal mining, or from coal's contribution to climate change. The 2012 Climate Vulnerability Monitor provides some hints on that score.
But while I applaud HEAL for drawing attention to the economic costs, because of course cost-benefit analysis lies at the core of government policymaking, I'm far more incensed by the human suffering that these numbers imply...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-rigg/coal-kills----time-to-kil_b_2826552.html?utm_hp_ref=energy
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Three articles on shutting down coal plants (Original Post)
kristopher
Mar 2013
OP
NickB79
(19,113 posts)1. Cheap fracked gas, woot!
From your second link:
U.S. natural gas production rose 16 percent from November 2008 to November 2012, creating a cheap supply that has made gas-generated electricity more competitive than that from coal...
The same gas with methane leakage rates of up to 9% per field per the latest studies.
Otherwise, carry on.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)2. Do you have a reference for that?
I don't doubt your number but I haven't see the study.
cprise
(8,445 posts)3. Nature news article
Methane leaks erode green credentials of natural gas
Losses of up to 9% show need for broader data on US gas industrys environmental impact.
Jeff Tollefson 02 January 2013
...
The researchers, who hold joint appointments with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado in Boulder, first sparked concern in February 2012 with a study1 suggesting that up to 4% of the methane produced at a field near Denver was escaping into the atmosphere. If methane a potent greenhouse gas is leaking from fields across the country at similar rates, it could be offsetting much of the climate benefit of the ongoing shift from coal- to gas-fired plants for electricity generation.
Industry officials and some scientists contested the claim, but at an American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco, California, last month, the research team reported new Colorado data that support the earlier work, as well as preliminary results from a field study in the Uinta Basin of Utah suggesting even higher rates of methane leakage an eye-popping 9% of the total production. That figure is nearly double the cumulative loss rates estimated from industry data which are already higher in Utah than in Colorado.
Losses of up to 9% show need for broader data on US gas industrys environmental impact.
Jeff Tollefson 02 January 2013
...
The researchers, who hold joint appointments with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado in Boulder, first sparked concern in February 2012 with a study1 suggesting that up to 4% of the methane produced at a field near Denver was escaping into the atmosphere. If methane a potent greenhouse gas is leaking from fields across the country at similar rates, it could be offsetting much of the climate benefit of the ongoing shift from coal- to gas-fired plants for electricity generation.
Industry officials and some scientists contested the claim, but at an American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco, California, last month, the research team reported new Colorado data that support the earlier work, as well as preliminary results from a field study in the Uinta Basin of Utah suggesting even higher rates of methane leakage an eye-popping 9% of the total production. That figure is nearly double the cumulative loss rates estimated from industry data which are already higher in Utah than in Colorado.
http://www.nature.com/news/methane-leaks-erode-green-credentials-of-natural-gas-1.12123
kristopher
(29,798 posts)4. Thank you.
I hadn't seen that, but I was hoping for one where the data had broader applicability than this one does. We already know there's a widescale study required, so these small-sample studies aren't really adding much to the discussion. I wish they'd get their asses in gear and provide a comprehensive assessment, we've had plenty of time since the problem was recognized.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)5. kick