Are Coal Power Plants a Good Idea?

I haven't written about this yet, but it was announced awhile back that Alliant Energy is planning on building a new coal power plant in Marshalltown. I go back and forth on the power plant. Yes, it will be good for the Marshalltown economy, but as a Marshalltown resident and an asthmatic, I have to consider the health care and environmental impacts.

Here is a recent letter to the editor in the Des Moines Register that shows one viewpoint on the issue of coal power plants.

A halt to building coal plants? It's not such a radical thought
By MARC FRANKE
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER

March 17, 2007

We should stop building new coal plants in Iowa and declare a moratorium on increasing coal use.

When I first heard this idea, it seemed pretty radical. Now, the more I consider it, the more it seems like the best thing for our state. We can grow our economy, add new jobs, improve our tax base and reduce pollution for us and our children all at the same time.

When we burn coal for electricity, it releases a lot of pollution. The tiny particles from combustion get into our lungs, choking our breathing and providing a pathway for pollutants into our bloodstream. The airborne mercury from burning coal gets into our fish, which then endangers pregnant mothers and small children. The sulfur from burning coal gets into our air and acidifies our lakes and streams, destroying habitat for fish. The carbon dioxide from burning coal gets into our atmosphere and accelerates global warming. In the years since 1940, carbon in our atmosphere is 27 percent higher than at any time in the past 650,000 years.

Iowa has some of the best wind resources in the United States. Already, Iowa's wind farms have created new jobs, increased the property-tax base for schools and services, reduced money flowing out of our state to import coal and prevented a huge amount of pollution. The new factories for wind turbines have created jobs, too, right here in Iowa.

If we need more electrical capacity, why wouldn't Iowans insist that it come from our own energy resources? Why spend our hard-earned energy money on highly polluting power from somewhere else? When I pay my electric bill, I want the money to help build my community, not to create more pollution in the air I breathe and the water I drink.

Advocates of coal electricity tell us that the pollution could be eliminated and the carbon could be stored with new technology now available. But so far, none of those plants has yet been built for us to evaluate. The Department of Energy has a $1 billion contract out to build such a "FutureGen" plant by 2012. When such a plant exists and is proven, we could end our coal-power moratorium.

Alliant is proposing a new coal plant for Marshalltown, and a New Jersey company, LS Power, is proposing a new plant for Waterloo. The Waterloo electricity might be sold to other states. Iowa would get the pollution; other states would get power; and New Jersey would get the profits.

Iowa gets up to 85 percent of its electricity already from coal. Nationally, coal provides only 50 percent of electricity. Let's get all of our new electrical capacity from our own energy resources and build up our economy, our jobs and our local tax base.

A coal power plant lasts 50 years. Let's not build any that aren't the best technology. Let your local officials and legislators know that Iowa already has more than enough coal electric power and the pollution that it brings.

MARC FRANKE of Ely writes and speaks on energy and policy. He volunteers with the nonprofit Iowa Renewable Energy Association.