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Page added on May 6, 2014
Did the Supreme Court Just Kill Dirty Coal Plants and Save the World?
The Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed that the Environmental Protection Agency has the prerogative to regulate air pollution that spills across state lines. The EPA wants to force 28 states to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from their power plants. Sulphur dioxide causes acid rain and breathing problems. Nitrogen oxide causes ground-level ozone, which is a big problem in cities such as Los Angeles.
The biggest source in the US of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide is coal-burning power plants. A typical coal plant emits 14,000 tons of sulphur dioxide a year, and those plants with environmental controls still put out 7,000 tons a year of the toxic material. Coal plants without special controls put out 14,000 tons of nitrogen oxide a year. Even if they have environmental controls, they still produce 3,000 tons of the stuff a year.
Even without those two toxic substances, coal plants are a major source of carbon dioxide emissions, which are causing climate disruption and global warming.
The coal industry already lost a Federal court case it brought against the Environmental Protection Agency, which is giving coal plant owners a year to clean up their act and stop mercury emissions. (Mercury is a nerve poison and can produce brain damage). The court held that the EPA is authorized by law to regulate such matters.
The Obama administration appears to want to close down the coal plants. Coal-burning produces over 30% of the 5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide the US emits every year (1.7 billion metric tons).
Coal power generation can now be replaced by a combination of wind and solar in many states. Natural gas in the US is now often produced by hydraulic fracturing, which is a big emitter of methane gas, an extreme hothouse gas, which should be forbidden lest we cook the planet.
AFP reports:
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Related video:
NewsyHub : “1,000 Coal Plants Affected By Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling”
20 Comments on "Did the Supreme Court Just Kill Dirty Coal Plants and Save the World?"
Plantagenet on Tue, 6th May 2014 10:49 pm
Coal exports have doubled under the Obama administration. Any claim that CO2 production from burning coal is being reduced is total BS. The reality is that CO2 production from US coal is rising rapidly.
J-Gav on Wed, 7th May 2014 3:28 am
The U.S. Supreme Court “saving the world” is a laugher … but even reducing coal emissions by half would be a distinct improvement. (Note that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over China and India).
Anon on Wed, 7th May 2014 6:40 am
Plantagenet – “Any claim that CO2 production from burning coal is being reduced is total BS.”
There is no such claim in the article.
“The reality is that CO2 production from US coal is rising rapidly.”
Net exports up since Obamas election/2009, but declining since 2012.
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=15191
US coal consumption declining since 09.
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=6990
Wouldn’t it be easier to just state your opinion rather than pretending to knowledge/fact?
TIKIMAN on Wed, 7th May 2014 7:17 am
The US gets 40% of it’s electricity from coal.
Anyone who hates coal needs to live in a cave and see if they like it.
Kenz300 on Wed, 7th May 2014 7:19 am
If there is to be any hope of dealing with Climate Change the world needs to stop building any more coal fired power plants and begin to shut down the oldest ones.
Years of Living Dangerously Premiere Full Episode – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brvhCnYvxQQ
Davey on Wed, 7th May 2014 7:30 am
Anti, ever heard of reverse provocations. Puut is a master of snake-ness. I would not put it past him. But probably the inept west oligarch mafia lead by CIA. But don’t think for a moment the Puut cabal would not sacrifice the partisans as cannon fodder. Remember Russia in WWII. No regard for human life in the pursuit of an end. That tradition lives on in the Russian leadership psyche.
Davey on Wed, 7th May 2014 7:34 am
I meant this:
BAU is dirty and AltE is a coal byproduct so are they going to outlaw that next. We need to outlaw intercourse that would solve some problems.
This site is the worst for functionality. My laptop could not post at some point so I had to put it on my iPhone and post it. My girlfriend says it probably has too much content and it freezes up. It is a pain in the ass some time!
Boat on Wed, 7th May 2014 10:02 am
J-Gav
The U.S. Supreme Court “saving the world” is a laugher … but even reducing coal emissions by half would be a distinct improvement. (Note that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over China and India).
It is an important step for the US though. I have np with any energy source as long as it being made to clean up its act and pay for its harm. In the long run what Kenz300 preaches is probably correct but change can only happen so fast.
At this time it takes fossil fuels to make wind and solar etc. But the tipping point for green is much closer today and when it hits we will see massive growth in renewables.
For now cleaning up mercury in coal etc is only common sense. Like regulation for flaring and cleaning up the land tainted by oil. These extra costs associated with common sense will push us to renewables much faster.
PapaSmurf on Wed, 7th May 2014 10:31 am
This article is retarded.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Wed, 7th May 2014 10:50 am
Boat too little too late, plus coal is essential to BAU functions. BAU will end without coal, so the gov and tree huggers need to acknowledge this and we can put our space suits on and blast off into collapse together. All happy in togetherness knowing what awaits us.
Northwest Resident on Wed, 7th May 2014 2:01 pm
Stop burning coal and civilization collapses instantly. Keep burning coal at the rates that we are currently burning and that collapse will be put off for a little while longer AND we ruin the world for all future generations of humanity, and for all other living things too. Hmmmm… What should we do…?
J-Gav on Wed, 7th May 2014 4:14 pm
Davy – Good one with the ‘space suits.’ We’ll all go to collapse on Mars!
Northwest – Hmmmm indeed! Quandary, predicament, dilemma – we have words for it but we don’t know what it’s going to look like, and most still prefer to not even ask the question.
rockman on Wed, 7th May 2014 6:17 pm
Tiki – That’s the US average. But consider Texas alone: we have the highest electrical generation capacity in the country and almost 80% more than the #2 state…PA. And surprise: Texas is by far the biggest coal consumer. And our economy is growing rapidly and e- demand is expected to increase about 30% in the next 20 or so years. And if Texas is forced off any significant amount of coal we’ll just burn more NG. NG we would have been shipping to other states. Which would drive their price up. Folks in the NE will pay for part f the price of Texas moving away from coal. A rather straight forward economic model.
Feemer on Wed, 7th May 2014 7:12 pm
It’s a good step, even though it does little if nothing to limit carbon pollution, mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides are more environmentally damaging due to acid rain from the SOx and NOx, and mercury pollution in humans and fish is obviously very bad. Good step, I’m sure republicans/ corporations will just sue again under a different bullshit reason or another…
Feemer on Wed, 7th May 2014 7:12 pm
It’s a good step, even though it does little if nothing to limit carbon pollution, mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides are more environmentally damaging due to acid rain from the SOx and NOx, and mercury pollution in humans and fish is obviously very bad. Good step, I’m sure republicans/ corporations will just sue again under a different bullshit reason or another…
synapsid on Wed, 7th May 2014 8:49 pm
Thermal coal is coal burned for energy production.
Metallurgical, or coking, coal is used in steel production.
Both release CO2 when used. Discussions about CO2 emission from coal consumption seem generally to focus on energy production but last time I looked the amount of CO2 emitted globally would be increased by about a third if use of metallurgical coal were included.
Boat on Wed, 7th May 2014 9:47 pm
Davy,
Boat too little too late, plus coal is essential to BAU functions. BAU will end without coal, so the gov and tree huggers need to acknowledge this and we can put our space suits on and blast off into collapse together. All happy in togetherness knowing what awaits us.
I don’t think we can know what to little to late is. It’s easy to say sometime in the future and it’s going to be bad. I just hope we have this conversation in 5 years and all is well.
We will continue to push towards more efficient and cleaner energy but what will not change is the competitive nature of competing countries. The price of cleaner has to be cheaper than the fossil fuels that make to get it to scale.
Every positive change may not save a disaster but help prevent a worse one. Thus we battle on.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Wed, 7th May 2014 10:07 pm
Boat, no energy is clean not one, not any. All other energy sources have embedded fossil fuel components and environmental destruction at their core. If you go way back in time and look at energy sources that are directly related to sun, wind, water, animals then those are clean. We are talking 18th century before the advent of industrial fossil fuel use. So we are a runaway train unable to stop nor go past the brick wall. It is sad and scary but it is reality. Most of mankind’s history has been one of facing reality. It is only in our current entropic globalism that we are quite capable of checking out of the normal business of “reality”. We will in a very short time get “whomped” back into the state of reality. Boat, you bring up a good point the “WHEN” question. We are at peak everything with lots of decent global infrastructure and no serious wars. Our financial system is being repressed and confidence is holding so Boat 5 years is possible. My life is great now. It is not easy at all. I am getting older and working long hours. Farming and prepping is not for sisies. I am not bragging it is just I am good at both because it is my life passion. I want 10 more years boat but I will settle for 2 or 3. Tonight I got in after 13 hour day and there was hardly any food in the cabin. After working so long and hard food is important and it was not there. I felt the future in that moment. Anyway, Boat stay optimistic but cover your ass in the process!
GregT on Wed, 7th May 2014 10:53 pm
“The huge increase in coal-fired power stations in China has masked the impact of global warming in the last decade because of the cooling effect of their sulphur emissions, new research has revealed. But scientists warn that rapid warming is likely to resume when the short-lived sulphur pollution – which also causes acid rain – is cleaned up and the full heating effect of long-lived carbon dioxide is felt.”
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/jul/04/sulphur-pollution-china-coal-climate
Davy, Hermann, MO on Thu, 8th May 2014 5:30 am
Greg yeap the lag effect. We also know the deep ocean is warming. The huge thermal sink of the ocean is our friend now but it will also be a devil once it warms enough to let go of the methane!