As the World Heats Up, Coal Power Plants Expanding in the United States

It’s bad enough that climate legislation is dead in the Senate at a time when we are seeing clear signs of human-caused global warming all over the world. To make matters worse, in the absence of climate legislation, more than 30 traditional coal-fired power plants have been built in the United States since 2008 or are under construction, signaling that coal will continue to pollute our water and warm our atmosphere for decades to come.

According to the Associated Press:

Utilities across the country are building dozens of old-style coal plants that will cement the industry's standing as the largest industrial source of climate-changing gases for years to come.

An Associated Press examination of U.S. Department of Energy records and information provided by utilities and trade groups shows that more than 30 traditional coal plants have been built since 2008 or are under construction.

The construction wave stretches from Arizona to Illinois and South Carolina to Washington, and comes despite growing public wariness over the high environmental and social costs of fossil fuels, demonstrated by tragic mine disasters in West Virginia, the Gulf oil spill and wars in the Middle East.

The expansion, the industry's largest in two decades, represents an acknowledgment that highly touted "clean coal" technology is still a long ways from becoming a reality and underscores a renewed confidence among utilities that proposals to regulate carbon emissions will fail. The Senate last month scrapped the leading bill to curb carbon emissions following opposition from Republicans and coal-state Democrats.

Building a coal-fired power plant today is betting that we are not going to put a serious financial cost on emitting carbon dioxide," said Severin Borenstein, director of the Energy Institute at the University of California-Berkeley. "That may be true, but unless most of the scientists are way off the mark, that's pretty bad public policy."
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Approval of the plants has come from state and federal agencies that do not factor in emissions of carbon dioxide, considered the leading culprit behind global warming. Scientists and environmentalists have tried to stop the coal rush with some success, turning back dozens of plants through lawsuits and other legal challenges.

As a result, current construction is far more modest than projected a few years ago when 151 new plants were forecast by federal regulators. But analysts say the projects that prevailed are more than enough to ensure coal's continued dominance in the power industry for years to come.

Sixteen large plants have fired up since 2008 and 16 more are under construction, according to records examined by the AP.

Combined, they will produce an estimated 17,900 megawatts of electricity, sufficient to power up to 15.6 million homes — roughly the number of homes in California and Arizona combined.

They also will generate about 125 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, according to emissions figures from utilities and the Center for Global Development. That's the equivalent of putting 22 million additional automobiles on the road.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that many, if not most or perhaps even all, of these traditional coal-fired power plants would not have been built if Congress got its act together and passed comprehensive climate legislation that puts a price on carbon. As the article notes, these power plants are being built without taking into account the costs of their greenhouse gas emissions – costs, which if factored in, could render the projects too expensive.

Now, I’m all for cheap energy. But even without a price on carbon, coal power isn’t really as cheap we are lead to believe. One of the main reasons that coal power appears inexpensive is because the price you pay in your electricity bill fails to take into account the full costs of coal, also referred to as its “externalities.” These are the costs to society that aren’t directly paid by consumers but are reflected through chronic health problems and the loss of ecosystem services. For instance, in addition to being the largest contributor to global warming pollution – which as we all know, will cost us dearly – coal power plants consume and pollute millions of gallons of valuable freshwater every single day. See: Coal Power Poisoning Rivers

Even more water is degraded from coal mining. Mountaintop removal mining, practiced primarily in the Southeastern U.S., provides a good illustration of the impacts coal mining can have on our rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater resources. Based on a review of over 30 studies on the effects of mountaintop removal mining in the Appalachia region encompassing sections of Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, the US EPA has found:

• Streams in proximity to mountaintop removal sites show increased minerals concentrations in the water - zinc, sodium, selenium, and sulfate - as well as less diverse and more pollutant-tolerant macroinvertebrates and fish species.

• Forests become fragmented and the regrowth of trees and natural vegetation on reclaimed land is hindered due to soil compacting. Loss of forested lands – currently affecting more than 400,000 acres of watershed in the Appalachia region – appears to increase soil erosion, decrease stormwater infiltration and increase the probability of flooding.

• Approximately 1200 miles of headwater streams were directly impacted by mountain top removal between 1992 and 2002 in the study area. An estimated 724 stream miles were destroyed by valley fills from 1985 to 2001. The elimination or degradation of headwater streams has far reaching impacts due to the role headwaters play in supporting fragile ecosystems and regulating nutrients, water quality, and flow quantity downstream

Acid mine drainage is common form of water pollution that can result from both surface and underground coal mining. When rain or groundwater comes into contact with sulfur compounds commonly found in the waste rock pulled out of coal mines, sulfuric acid and dissolved iron can form and carry heavy metals and minerals into nearby water supplies. Common effects of acid mine drainage include iron precipitate forming red, orange or yellow sediments in the bottom of streams , increased levels of sulfate, total dissolved solids, calcium, selenium, magnesium and manganese, as well as greater electrical conductivity, acidity, sodium and nitrate. The degraded, highly acidic water can damage structures such as bridges and culverts, and make water less habitable, potentially nonpotable and unfit for recreational purposes – of course, these huge costs are not incorporated into electricity bills. It has been estimated that between 9,000 and 22,000 miles of streams have been damaged by acid mine drainage as a result of coal mining in the United States.

Does coal still sound cheap?

It is sad to see that so many utilities are making a decision to continue building old style coal-fired power plants and commit to spewing millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere for decades to come. With climate legislation stalled and no price on carbon in sight, water might be the best vector for communicating the true costs of coal. Because of the damage that the coal industry is already reaping on our freshwater resources – and the far greater damage that we will see as the climate continues to change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions – it is imperative for river and watershed groups to stay engaged in energy issues and help drive their local utilities to choosing clean sources of energy with minimal water impacts, such as wind and photovoltaic solar.