Just outside Chicago, a major polluter lurks

[marmar]

from the Chicago Tribune:







From a plane, it would be easy to think one of the nation's dirtiest power plants is within the Chicago city limits.

But the aging State Line Power Station, a major contributor to the city's chronically dirty air, sits just a few hundred feet over the state border in Indiana, leaving it largely unnoticed and untouched during a decades-long effort to transform the Chicago area's smog-choked history.

Protesters regularly march in front of two other coal-fired power plants in Pilsen and Little Village, demanding an end to noxious pollution that wafts into the Chicago neighborhoods. Federal and state prosecutors are suing the owner of the plants to force significant cuts in smog- and soot-forming emissions.

Yet a Tribune analysis reveals that the State Line plant, built along Lake Michigan by ComEd in 1929 and bought by Virginia-based Dominion Resources in 2002, is far dirtier than either of the Chicago plants. It emits more lung-damaging nitrogen oxide than the Pilsen and Little Village plants combined, and churns more sulfur dioxide and toxic mercury into the air than either plant.

Only a dozen other coal plants nationwide emit more nitrogen oxide in relation to the amount of electricity generated — a sign of how much less efficient State Line is than bigger, cleaner power plants.

State Line also is a fish killer, one of several old plants around the Great Lakes allowed to suck up millions of gallons of water to cool equipment, then pump it back out steaming hot. Illinois and Indiana banned the technology at newer plants decades ago because it is so destructive to aquatic life. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-dirty-power-plant-20100918,0,6593923.story

[Scuba]

1. Even us Cheeseheads have to breathe that crap.

[hunter]

2. Shutting down dirty old coal plants is great...

... replacing them with new fossil fuel power plants isn't.

How can we shut this plant down without building a new coal or natural gas fired power plant to replace it?

That's the problem. Using less electricity is one answer, nuclear power is another. Thus far the European experiments in solar and wind energy have failed to accomplish this.

[kristopher]

4. Thus far?

Renewables provided almost 20 percent of Europe's electricity in 2009. It is nothing more than a matter of penetration - the more renewables that are brought online from an ever widening technological and geographic distribution, the less currently operating coal and nuclear plants are needed.

The reality is that renewables can do the job BETTER and CHEAPER than either coal or nuclear. Do you know what the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission does? It is the agency responsible for ensuring the safety and RELIABILITY of the nation's electric supply. http://www.ferc.gov /


April 22, 2009
Energy Regulatory Chief Says New Coal, Nuclear Plants May Be Unnecessary
By NOELLE STRAUB AND PETER BEHR, Greenwire

No new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission said today.

"We may not need any, ever," Jon Wellinghoff told reporters at a U.S. Energy Association forum.
The FERC chairman's comments go beyond those of other Obama administration officials, who have strongly endorsed
greater efficiency and renewables deployment but also say nuclear and fossil energies will continue playing a major role.
Wellinghoff's view also goes beyond the consensus outlook in the electric power industry about future sources of electricity.
The industry has assumed that more baseload generation would provide part of an increasing demand for power, along
with a rapid deployment of renewable generation, smart grid technologies and demand reduction strategies.
Jay Apt, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Electricity Industry Center, expressed skepticism about the feasibility
of relying so heavily on renewable energy. "I don't think we're where Chairman Wellinghoff would like us to be," Apt said.
"You need firm power to fill in when the wind doesn't blow. There is just no getting around that."
Some combination of more gas- or coal-fired generation, or nuclear power, will be needed, he said. "Demand response can
provide a significant buffering of the power fluctuations coming from wind. Interacting widely scattered wind farms cannot
provide smooth power." ...




While there are naysayers, few are in a position to evaluate the issue as is Chairman Wellinghoff.

[madokie]

5. One of the big users of electricity is the refrigerator

I remember when we purchased the one we have now that replaced a 20 or so year old refrigerator and how it cut our electric bill and this has been 10 or more years ago. I also know that we have a much better insulating material than what is used in the refrigerators of today and its called aerogel. I also know we have more efficient compressors, scroll compressors, than what most refrigerators use today so in that alone we could cut our energy usage by a measurable amount. Throw our air conditioners and heat pumps in the mix and enjoy even more savings. We have tons of sawdust going to waste in this country that could be turned into pellets and burned in pellet stoves for our heat that could replace the resistance heat that many use. Lots of ways we can cut our energy usage on a personal level it we'd as individuals look at the big picture rather than what is good for us right now. I know when we went from a propane heat to a wood pellet stove 18-19 years ago we're something like 5000 dollars to the good even though we've upgraded and gave our kids our old ones and that figure is taking in consideration the price of the three stoves we've bought. What I'm saying is smart decisions would go a long way towards solving our energy problems of today if only we'd make them.

Aerogel: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=aerogel+insulation&aq=f&aqi=g5&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=6f32b8af52b7e0b8

replace out with our

I'd like to add. This past week I spent a few days cleaning up the yard, a tad over an acre, picking up dropped apples, pairs, sticks, walnuts, tree limbs, cleaned up our garden spots and by using this little electric cart I built pictured here I used less that 1kwh or $.09 a kwh, actually I used .64% of 1 kwh where if I'd used what I used to use, a lawn and garden tractor, for the same job I'd have used several gallons of gasoline at $2.59 a gallon. There is a lot that we as individuals can do that would help if we'd all just do it. Using a wheel barrow is out due to my leg condition.

[DrGregory]

3. One wonders what the agenda is.,.,.,

Only a dozen other coal plants nationwide emit more nitrogen oxide in relation to the amount of electricity generated — a sign of how much less efficient State Line is than bigger, cleaner power plants.
-----------------------------------------------------

They shutdown the Zion nuclear power plant on the shores of
Lake Michigan just north of Chicago - but they left this thing
still working.

Dr. Greg