We can support development of a natural gas infrastructure. We can offer financial incentives for building power plants that are cleaner than coal. Perhaps we can even create headroom for some limited coal capacity in developing countries by more quickly retiring our own coal fleets. I hope not. The challenge is to develop economically competitive alternatives as quickly as possible, because constraining the growth of energy supplies in developing countries is neither ethical nor realistic.
We need to spend far more on technology research and development. We need to muster far more political will to set aggressive climate policies, including carbon pricing.
Also, we need to bundle job creation with the transition away from coal. This is both a moral and a political imperative. If it comes down to my insecurity about having a job and providing for my family versus my longer-term worries about the climate, the job concern will win every time. The environmental movement is starting to better incorporate livelihood considerations into its political activism in developed countries.
It can further integrate this approach into work on coal in developing countries. Skip to content. Stanford Energy is brought to you by the Precourt Institute for Energy. Search form Search. Dec 20, Distrust in the TVA runs deep in eastern Tennessee, and as the utility shutters two power plants—Bull Run and Kingston—local activists fear it will close up shop without safely containing its leaky pits of toxic sludge and ash.
Limetree Bay oil refinery recently announced its indefinite closure. The global toll of premature deaths attributed to the burning of coal, gasoline, and diesel is breathtakingly high, with new research doubling previous estimates. As the country focuses on fighting a pandemic and mourning its victims, the Trump administration sees a perfect time for showering the fossil fuel industry with gifts. Oil and gas operations leak this potent greenhouse gas far more than previously thought, and par for the course the Trump administration is making the situation worse.
Some people tout bioenergy as a solution to our climate crisis. Hydraulic fracturing has upended the global energy landscape and made fossil fuels big business in the United States. Mounting evidence shows that it poses serious threats to our health, environment, and climate future. In Texas, tax breaks for fossil fuels outpace tax breaks for renewables by a rate of two to one. Guess which sector is whining about unfairness?
After an illegal dumping of close to 2, tons of dangerous sludge and contaminated materials across the street from two schools, a Kentucky community struggles with what to do next. As the interior secretary ponders the fates of 27 national monuments, he seems to be hearing some voices more acutely than others.
Our rivers, reservoirs, lakes, and seas are drowning in chemicals, waste, plastic, and other pollutants. Healing the planet starts at home—in your garage, in your kitchen, and at your dining-room table.
Activists across the country rallied, hosted listening sessions, and submitted public comments to advocate for carbon pollution limits from power plants. The United States and Mexico meet the deadline for their carbon pollution goals. Will others follow? In what the modern world sees as coal and oil, this New Yorker sees ancient plant species—and hope.
The president wants to relax national fuel efficiency standards and bully states into scuttling their own plans for lower emissions and cleaner air. We will keep you informed with the latest alerts and progress reports.
Greenhouse Effect Bioenergy Biomass Other countries are experiencing severe health impacts from coal. In China, , deaths were attributed to coal in alone. In India , coal kills about , people annually. Power generation has been estimated to be second only to agriculture in being the largest domestic user of water. Once through this cycle, the steam is cooled and condensed back into water, with some technologies using water to cool the steam, increasing a plant's water usage.
In coal plants, water is also used to clean and process the fuel itself. The U. Geological Survey estimates that thermoelectric plants withdrew billion gallons of water per day in , of which billion gallons was fresh water. Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle IGCC , which converts coal into synthetic gas or syngas to extract more energy, is being promoted as a path toward carbon capture and storage ; however as of capturing carbon dioxide CO2 reduces plant efficiency and increases water usage.
Thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature. A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial manufacturers. When water used as a coolant is returned to the natural environment at a higher temperature, the change in temperature impacts organisms by a decreasing oxygen supply, and b affecting ecosystem composition.
When a power plant first opens or shuts down for repair or other causes, fish and other organisms adapted to particular temperature range can be killed by the abrupt rise in water temperature known as 'thermal shock': most aquatic organisms have developed enzyme systems that operate in only narrow ranges of temperature, and can be killed by sudden temperature changes that are beyond the tolerance limits of their metabolic systems.
Coal mining also has a number of adverse effects on the environment:. As of June , no national limits exist on air pollution from coal mines. On June 17, , in a petition presented to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, a coalition of environmental groups called for new controls over coal mine air pollution. The petition states that coal mines should be held to the Clean Air Act standards in force for gravel mines, coal-fired power plants, coal processing plants, and other sources.
The petition also calls on Jackson to adopt strict limits on other dangerous air pollutants released from coal mines, including methane, as well as particulate matter, nitrogen oxide gases, and volatile organic compounds — all toxic air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
The long-distance transport of coal can also result in occasional but significant environmental impacts. In April , a bulk carrier transporting approximately 65, tonnes of coal from Gladstone Australia to China ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. These include damage done to crop and timber yields, to buildings and materials, and the toll coal takes on human health --including the cost of illness and premature deaths.
The study did not consider any potential damages done by greenhouse gas emissions. A Feb. Paul Epstein, found that accounting for the full costs of coal would double or triple its price. The study discussed a number of other impacts that are not easily quantified, including effects of heavy metal toxins and carcinogens released into water supplies as part of coal mining and processing; the death and injury of workers mining coal ; and the social impacts in mining communities.
Skeptical Science notes that when the coal externalities of the study are included in coal's price, it increases the levalized costs to approximately 28 cents per kWh, which is more than the U. Energy Information Administration cost of hydroelectric, wind onshore and offshore , geothermal, biomass, nuclear, natural gas, and solar photovoltaics, and is on par with solar thermal, although the costs of solar thermal are falling.
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