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EPA Approves Surface Coal Mining in Ohio

By S. T., on March 8th, 2010

Today the EPA approved a permit for surface coal mining in Ohio. This is a big blow to the environment, to future generations of Americans, and to the natural resources of the United States. This is our country, but it seems that Big Coal and other polluters feel they own it, and can ruin our country however they wish.

Read more about this ruling and listen to Lisa Jackson speak at the National Press Club at Climate Files Radio.

The press release for this decision is here.

EPA Approves Ohio Surface Coal Mine — “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded its review of a Clean Water Act permit application for Oxford Mining Company’s proposed Kaiser Mathias mine in Tuscarawas County, Ohio and has approved the project.”

This is the EPA not relying on science for its decisions. This is the EPA stalling a real decision on surface coal mining, while global warming continues to escalate and the government officials spin their wheels in Washington. Lisa Jackson claims the EPA cannot regulate coal mining. That’s not ‘Yes We Can’, that’s a weak excuse to allow coal lobbyists to continue their choke-hold over the federal government. They are selling out future generations for more coal profits.

It’s time we take our country — literally — back from the polluters.

Big Coal

Podcast and Coal Ash Waste

By S. T., on February 25th, 2010

There is a new Climate Files podcast, with news headlines, information on the recent EPA Townhall meeting, and the energy-related portion of Obama’s business speech. I asked a question at the EPA townhall but no one was willing to address the Enbridge oil sands pipeline in Minnesota that I asked about. It’s currently under construction, and there have already been oil spills. Even with the new publicly-declared willingness of the EPA to answer our questions, there are still uncomfortable things they would rather not discuss.

One of the stories mentioned in the podcast is about coal ash waste, something that plagues the U.S. even more than nuclear waste because there’s so much more of it. Thirty-one sites have been newly identified as being very dangerous to public health. “Arsenic, a potent human carcinogen, has been found at 19 of 31 sites at extremely high levels.” Did you know the use of coal can cause cancer? Coal plants and their toxic waste are more prevalent than nuclear plants in the U.S. too.

“Two environmental groups today identified 31 sites in 14 states contaminated with coal-ash waste containing arsenic, cadmium, lead, selenium, and other toxic metals that can cause cancer and neurological damage to humans and poison fish and wildlife.

The report from the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice released today relies on facts compiled from monitoring data and other information in the files of state agencies. The groups say these facts demand immediate federal regulation of coal combustion waste disposal, which is currently unregulated.

The newly identified coal combustion waste sites are in addition to the 70 sites identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the wake of the disastrous Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill at the Kingston power plant in December 2008 – bringing the total to 101.

Continue Reading → Podcast and Coal Ash Waste

CO2 Solutions

A Plan to Store CO2 in Basalt

By S. T., on January 6th, 2010

The latest Big Idea for storing CO2 from carbon capture and sequestration or CCS (still a technology in development) is to force it into basalt, which is volcanic rock. This rock is plentiful off the U.S. east coast, where 1/4 of Americans live. But obviously not the whole country lives on the east coast, so this basalt won’t help anyone else in the country, unless they can move the basalt. Also, many people who live on the coasts might be moving inland as climate change escalates in future decades.

Reportedly, basalt can absorb a huge amount of CO2 (though not all that we emit for the next 100 years) and after it’s absorbed, it turns into a limestone-like rock. That means there is no danger of the CO2 escaping. The problem with this seemingly good idea is that they aren’t even started on this yet, it’s merely an idea, and we don’t have time to depend on unproven technologies to mitigate climate change at this late date. We are in a climate crisis situation, trying to avoid tipping points, and this process and technology development is yet to be made and implemented. The Waxman-Markey bill devotes more money to CCS, inexplicably, than renewable energy, but that doesn’t mean we have to throw money away on this now. We can throw money away on it later. It would make more sense now to put money into things we know will work to try to get the carbon dioxide levels down as quickly as possible. CCS could take 20-30 years to develop and then there is no guarantee it can be done on a large enough scale to have the necessary impact.

This is discussed in the latest Climate Files podcast and the article below from SolveClimate. The article’s author claims:

A July 2008 study by the same researchers found that 208 billion metric tons could be stored in the offshore basalt formations of the U.S. Northwest’s Juan de Fuca tectonic plate — that is as much as 150 years’ worth of U.S. emissions. . . . . In a study released Monday, ABI Research predicted that new CCS projects will keep 146 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Their estimates are based on markets for carbon emissions allowances encouraging firms to seek out technologies like CCS to limit their emissions.

The problem with that claim is that the U.S. emits about 7.1 billion metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) of greenhouse gases per year, (my estimate of 5.7 billion metric tons in the podcast was low) and that means only about 34 years of U.S. emissions could be forced into basalt, if the procedure even works. Considering that our emissions have to peak and then taper off starting in about 10 years or less, and the technology might not be developed for 20 or more years, it’s hard to see where planning to store CO2 in basalt gets us. Look at all the money they want to sink into CCS!

From 2009 through 2014, they predict, $14.6 billion will have been invested in 73 new CCS projects.
But Rochon [from Greenpeace] worries that these projects will redirect funds that might be better spent on technologies like those used to generate renewable energy.

Here is part of the SolveClimate article:

Now, researchers say, those basalt formations could become a main depository for excess carbon dioxide. A study in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences points out the advantages of using the East Coast’s on- and offshore basalt flows for the sequestration of carbon dioxide captured from power plants in the region.

Continue Reading → A Plan to Store CO2 in Basalt