Clean-Coal Debate Pits Al Gore’s Group Against Obama, Peabody

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aqk2JyvYFwe8&refer=us

Clean-Coal Debate Pits Al Gore’s Group Against Obama, Peabody

By Daniel Whitten

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and his http://www.climateprotect.org/">Alliance for Climate Protection say clean-coal technology is a fantasy.

Peabody Energy Corp., the biggest U.S. coal producer, says another prominent Democrat has pledged to make the technology a reality: President Barack Obama.

The Gore-Obama split illustrates a growing debate in the U.S. as the new president attempts to deliver http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/energy_and_environment/">on his promise to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the country 80 percent by 2050. Depending on who’s speaking, coal is either the villain or part of the solution.

…

Obama’s Energy Secretary Steven Chu had called coal his “worst nightmare” in a 2007 speech. At his Senate confirmation hearing on Jan. 13, Chu said the fuel is a “great natural resource” that the “the U.S., with its great technological leadership, should rise to the occasion to develop.”

[jtrockville]

1. Speaking of coal... how is cleanup of the Tennessee disaster going?

Is there still 6 feet of toxic sludge covering several hundred square acres, or have we recovered and sequestered it?

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Analysis shows exposure to ash from TVA spill could have 'severe health implications'

http://news.duke.edu/2009/01/tva.html

Analysis shows exposure to ash from TVA spill could have 'severe health implications'

Nicholas School's Avner Vengosh leads tests in eastern Tennessee

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Durham, NC -- A report by Duke University scientists who analyzed water and ash samples from last month’s coal sludge spill in eastern Tennessee concludes that “exposure to radium- and arsenic-containing particulates in the ash could have severe health implications” in the affected areas.

“Our radioactive measurements of solid ash samples from Tennessee suggests the ash has radiation levels above those reported by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for typical coal ash,” said Avner Vengosh, associate professor of earth and ocean sciences at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “Preventing the formation of airborne particulate matter from the ash that was released to the environment seems essential for reducing possible health impacts.”

…

Vengosh’s team found that the combined content of radium-228 and radium-226 – the two long-lived isotopes of radium – in the solid ash samples they collected from the TVA spill measured about 8 picocuries per gram. That’s higher than the average 5-6 picocuries per gram reported by the EPA in most bottom and fly ash samples. The curie is a standard measure of the intensity of radioactivity.

…

Water samples collected and analyzed by Vengosh and Duke graduate student Laura Ruhl found high levels of arsenic, measuring 95 parts per billion, in water from the dammed tributary where coal ash has accumulated. Only low concentrations were found in the Emory and Clinch rivers. The EPA has set the arsenic standard for safe public drinking water at 10 parts per billion.

…

[jtrockville]

3. Sounds grim. Thanks for the update.