Climate impacts of coal plants
{{#Badges: CoalSwarm}} Coal-fired power plants are responsible for one-third of America’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions—about the same amount as all transportation sources -- cars, SUVs, trucks, buses, planes, ships, and trains -- combined.[1]
A 1000 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant produces approximately the same amount of global warming as 1.2 million cars.[2]
Coal-to-liquids technology will have particularly intensive climate effects. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, using liquefied coal as a fuel source would produce 119 percent greater greenhouse gas emissions than using petroleum-based fuel.[3]
Cancellation of Longleaf on climate grounds
In June, 2008, Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore invalidated the air pollution permit required to begin construction of Longleaf, a proposed 1200 MW plant in Georgia. The judge cited the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that carbon dioxide is subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act as a pollutant. As originally permitted, the plant would have emitted 9 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. The original permit placed no restrictions on the amount of carbon dioxide the plant could emit.[4]
Testimony on the climate impacts of coal
- Testimony of James Hansen before the Iowa Utility Board, November 5, 2007.
- Testimony of Joseph Romm before Congress, September 5, 2007.
References
- ↑ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2004,” April 2006.
- ↑ Barbara Freese and Steve Clemmer, "Gambling with Coal: How New Climate Laws Will Make Future Coal Plants More Expensive," Union of Concerned Scientists, September 2006, page 2.
- ↑ Testimony of Joseph Romm before Congress, September 5, 2007.
- ↑ Georgia court cites carbon in coal-plant ruling Reuters, June 30, 2008
