Paradise Interrupted
Outdated coal-fired power plant a blight on our natural environment in the U.P.
Marquette, MI, June 2, 2014 – Good news from Washington today as the Obama administration released a groundbreaking plan with the intent to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by almost a third by the year 2030! This is one of the most significant actions on global warming in U.S. history and is espeically relevant in our small town of Marquette which hosts not just one coal fired power plant but TWO!
It’s the 21st century and we have the technological know how that can revolutionize how we consume energy yet industrialists like the Koch brothers invest millions hiding the environmental and health damages they create while denying global warming and the increasing impacts on our worldwide communitites. They continue to pollute our air, water, and soil for their own profit contaminating the crucial resources we must all share in exchange for closely gurarded profits that benefit very few. The worst part is that the bulk of American citizens are buying into this bogus propaganda.
When Gina McCarthy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spoke to the press today she laid out the basic goals of the new plan to set “achievable enforceable state goals” for cutting carbon pollution within a national framework that allows each state flexibility to customize their routes to meeting these goals.
She went on to debunk concerns that transitioning to new energy standards will hurt economic growth saying, “The facts are very clear: for over 4 decades EPA has cut air pollution by seventy percent and the economy has now more than tripled. All the while providing the energy we need to keep America strong. Climate action doesn’t actually dull America’s competitive edge, it sharpens it. The bottom line is we have never nor will we ever have to choose between an economy and a healthy environment.”
The coal industry is damaging to the health of countless people and the environment from the moment it’s extracted from the earth to the pollution pouring out of the smokestacks as it’s burned. While some folks may benefit in the short term by receiving income as a trade off for coal fired pollution, other regions don’t reap these same benefits yet still suffer the costs to their health.
Polluting acid gases affect those in direct proximity while metals like lead, mercury, uranium, and arsenic travel across city and state lines. Fine particulate matter travels even further having a global impact. All together the impact of air pollution is responsible for the deaths of 7 million worldwide and coal burning power plants account for eighty percent of this killer air pollution.
Transitioning to cleaner alternatives is a realistic possiblitiy. More and more success stories are popping up across the country. With the help of the Obama stimulus bill wind and solar plants are becoming increasingly viable alternatives to coal. One Oklahoma utility has shut down three coal plants recently purchasing 600 megawatts of wind power; three times the amount they originally intended due to the affordability of the bids they received from the alternative enery options.
Even in our own state, the Michigan Energy Efficiency Consultants Association had this to say in a recent Sierra Club article, “Clean energy produces $21 for every $1 invested in commerical and industrial products across the state. In addition to the economic benefits of clean energy, the public also saves on health costs. Pollution from nine of the oldest coalfired power plants across the state costs Michigan residents 1.5 billion per year in health related damages, according to a Michigan Environmental Council report.”
Many communities across the country are taking steps to update or close the outdated use of coal fired power plants successfully so why can’t we do the same here in the Upper Peninsula where we take pride in the quality of our natural resources? The all too comfortable excuse that ‘this is the way we’ve always done it’ sounds archaic and ignorant with the knowledge and technologies we now possess.
Marquette’s dependency on coal needs to become a thing of the past. Put it in a museum already! It’s time to step boldly forward into the new age of clean energy and focus on how alternatives can provide jobs and maintain the health of our residents and our environment.
Our community is working hard to promote the area as an outdoor recreational mecca speaking of the beauty of our unspoiled natural environment. Yet our scenic coastline is littered with the unsightly smokestacks of two coal fired power plants and even worse the Presque Isle Power Plant has not adhered to the current EPA standards for almost a decade already and emits over 6 times the EPA allowable amount of mercury into our community each year.
We’re for change, postive progressive change. “We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are.” Max Depree
Check out these links for more info:
American Lung Association: Toxic Air Report
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