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Environmental Impacts of Fossil Fuel Use. Burning Oil Wells, Kuwait, 1990. TOPICS: Coal Mining: Land Alteration, Mining Hazards Coal Tailings: Stream and Water Table Pollution Coal Combustion: Acid Rain Oil Spills: Drilling and Transportation Gasoline Leaks and Urban Development
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Environmental Impacts of Fossil Fuel Use Burning Oil Wells, Kuwait, 1990
TOPICS: Coal Mining: Land Alteration, Mining Hazards Coal Tailings: Stream and Water Table Pollution Coal Combustion: Acid Rain Oil Spills: Drilling and Transportation Gasoline Leaks and Urban Development Gasoline Combustion: Air and Streams Petroleum Use (Plastics): Landfills and Ocean Debris Saving for Later: War and Other Conflicts Economic Issues Greenhouse Gases
2011 - Environmental Protection Agency revokes the license by the Arch Coal Company for its Spruce No 1 “mountaintop removal” coal mine, citing that it is terminally bad for the environment • mine would have been the largest ever, removing 2,278 acres of forest • would have removed an entire mountaintop, dump 110 million cubic yards of coal-mining waste into seven miles of headwater streams • only the 12th time in 39 years the EPA has blocked a mine under provisions of the Clean Water Act • in previous years, mines were allowed to dump into stream beds and riverbeds essentially without regard to the environmental consequences, ignoring the Clean Water Act. • Pres. Bush tried to repeal Clean Water Act. Stopped by Supreme Court.
Kingston Ash Slide In December 2008, Kingston Ash Slide flooded a large swath of Tennessee with toxic coal ash when a containment pond ruptured. The massive spill -- bigger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska -- covered hundreds of acres of land, knocking homes off of their foundations and flowing into streams and the Clinch and Tennessee rivers. The spill killed wildlife and poses long-term threats to human health and the environment
There are thousands of similar dumps in 46 states, many of which are unmonitored and unregulated. Coal ash, a toxic byproduct of coal power plants, contains heavy metals including arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which threaten water supplies and human health. EPA has found groundwater at 63 sites around the country already contaminated by these dumps.
Sludge impoundment on the west side of Coal River Mountain, WV, 5 miles away from Cherry Pond Mountain Holds 8 billion tons of coal sludge (by-product of washing coal)
Soil Acidity: (1 kg SO4/ha/yr = 20.8 eq/ha/yr “charge equivalent units”; 1 hectare ~ 2.5 acres)
Many Human Health Concerns from Coal Burning (i.e., $$$$$)
Twenty worst states for Air Pollution from power generation:
Important National Air Quality Regulations: 1955: Air Pollution Control Act (Public Law 84-159) 1963: Clean Air Act (Public Law 88-206) 1965: Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act (Public Law 89-272) 1966: Clean Air Act Amendments (Public Law 89-675) 1967: Air Quality Act (Public Law 90-148) 1969: National Environmental Policy Act (Public Law 91-190) 1970: Clean Air Act Extension (Public Law 91-604) 1976: Toxic Substances Control Act (Public Law 94-469) 1977: Clean Air Act Amendments (Public Law 95-95) 1990: Clean Air Act Amendments (Public Law 101-549)
1970: Clean Air Act Extension (Public Law 91-604) Passed in the Senate, 73-0; Passed in the House 374-1 "I think that 1970 will be known as the year of the beginning, in which we really began to move on the problems of clean air and clean water and open spaces for the future generations of America”
1970: Clean Air Act Extension (Public Law 91-604) Passed in the Senate, 73-0; Passed in the House 374-1 "I think that 1970 will be known as the year of the beginning, in which we really began to move on the problems of clean air and clean water and open spaces for the future generations of America" President Richard M. Nixon
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990: forcing a reduction in pollution from power plants
Air Pollution decreasing in the US: Six major pollutants: Ozone, particular matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, lead
Prairie State Energy Campus - 1,600 megawatt base load, coal fired, electrical power station and coal mine under construction near Marissa, Illinois southeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Prairie State Energy Campus (PSEC) will feature low levels of regulated emissions compared to other coal fired power stations, capturing sulfur from high-sulfur coal mined nearby instead of transporting low-sulfur coal from elsewhere.
Prairie State Energy Campus is led by Peabody Energy Corporation and jointly owned by eight public electric utilities. The first 800 MW generator went on line in June, 2012. The project's Lively Grove underground mine is expected to produce 6 million tons of high sulfur coal per year.[
PSEC stated it will be "among the cleanest major coal-fueled plants in the nation” through use of clean coal technology, producing as low as one-fifth the levels of regulated pollutants as typical U.S. coal-fired plants. Noting that projected emissions nevertheless include 25,000 tons of soot and smog-forming pollutants yearly, the Sierra Club and other organizations sued (unsuccessfully) to stop the EPA granting an air permit.
According to the Chicago Tribune, PSEC will be the "largest source of carbon dioxide built in the United States in a quarter-century.” The company projects a 15% reduction in carbon dioxide pollution compared with other coal fired power plants based on its use of efficient supercritical steam generators and no emissions from transporting coal. Peabody chose not to employ a more expensive integrated gasification combined cycle design that could more easily be retrofitted with carbon capture technology.
PSEC started delivering electricity in 2012 at prices well above market rates. Peabody capped construction costs at ~$4 billion, excluding some costs for coal development and transmission lines. In January 2013, with many municipalities adversely impacted by the high prices, the SEC subpoenaed information from Peabody.
