Coal and Public Health
Public Health Issues
Surrounding Coal as an
Energy Source
Brian S. Schwartz, MD, MS
Department of Environmental Health Sciences
February 2009
The Dirt on
Coal
Jan/Feb 2009
We use a lot of coal!
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
1
Coal and Public Health
Coal fuels
around 50% of
all electricity
generated, but
contributes
two-thirds of
carbon dioxide
emissions
The New York Times, 2-14-09
Can Coal Offer a Solution to Peak Oil?
•
•
In 2007, US paid > $620B for petroleum
imports, mainly to countries that
generally did not share American values
Three ways to moderate that impact
1. Reduce liquid fuel consumption through
conservation
2. Produce more fuels domestically
3. Electrify transport
) Coal can help with #2 and #3
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Coal Challenges
• However, recent analysis suggests that the
resource is not as copious as previously stated
• Just to offset declining heating value of US coal
while meeting EIA forecasts for electricity
demand growth by 2030, coal mining must
increase 80%
• With climate change, this must be done with
carbon capture and storage, with an energy
penalty of 40%
• Broad-scale effort for coal-to-liquids and exports
will also increase demand
• All this suggests US will need to double or triple
coal production by 2030
• Is this possible?
#194, R. Heinberg, June 2008
Coal Production in USA
• ~50% of electricity
• ~25% of total energy
• Total energy contribution from coal
into US economy peaked 1998
“Heating value” –
energy content per
unit of weight – 30%
decline since 1955
#194, R. Heinberg, June 2008
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
US is the Saudi Arabia of coal!
David Rutledge, Caltech: Hubbert linearization leads to
ultimately recoverable reserve estimate of 135Gt,
approximately half of the reserves used by official agencies
Jean Laherrère: petroleum geologist, uses two estimates
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Yup, You Are Free to Call it
“CLEAN COAL” …
• Mountaintop removal and mining
– Destructive practices, battered communities
• Air pollution
– Acid rain, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulates,
mercury
• Greenhouse gas emissions
– More carbon intensive than other sources
– Carbon capture and storage is a fantasy to date
• Ash generation
– Huge waste stream
• Occupational issues
– Black lung, underground explosions, injuries
(… but you’d be wrong …)
Google Earth – Global Awareness –
Appalachian Mountaintop Removal
WV
KY
VA
TN
NC
~500 mountain tops in Appalachians
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Appalachian mountaintop removal for coal
(Kentucky)
The Independent, May 20, 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-mountain-that-lost-its-top-831037.html
Aftermath
near Kirk,
WV
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
“The mountaintop mining operation that flattened Kayford
Mountain in southern West Virginia. Coal companies removed
several hundred feet of the mountain, to extract narrow seams of
coal. The resulting rubble was placed in valley fills, disturbing
headwater streams.”
Earth Magazine, Sep 2, 2008
Bush Administration Altered Appalachian Landscape
by Elizabeth Shogren, January 19, 2009
QUOTES FROM ARTICLE
• What used to be a peak is now a massive mining site.
• A coal company scraped off the top of the mountain to get to coal
seams.
• Across Appalachia, similar operations are flattening mountains and
covering up streams.
• The Bush administration has promoted what is called mountaintop
removal mining, and it even changed environmental rules when lawsuits
threatened to halt the practice.
• Throughout his term, Bush worked to preserve coal's position as the
biggest source of electricity and to increase domestic production of oil
and natural gas.
• These priorities have translated into a lasting environmental legacy that
includes buried streams in the coalfields of Appalachia, polluted
waterways in the Rocky Mountain West and coal-fired power plants that
haven't had to clean up.
• "Truly, I think that the Bush administration is responsible for the
destruction of one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world," says Joe
Lovett, a West Virginia lawyer who has argued several lawsuits to try to
end mountaintop mining. "If you fly over the mountain range, what you
see is a wasteland where once there were the most productive and
diverse forests in the world, mountain streams – those are gone."
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
EPA Eyes Mountain Top Removal
March 27, 2009
“The Environmental Protection Agency has expressed concern
that mining practices routinely approved by the Bush
administration may seriously damage water quality.
Environmentalists hoped this would lead to a moratorium on
mountaintop removal but the EPA says it is merely examining
permit applications more closely.”
“Clean Coal?”
• ~600 US coal plants produce 130M tons of postcombustion byproducts a year from 1,100
single-boiler furnaces.
– 1 million railroad cars, NY Æ LA 3.5 times
– Second largest waste stream in US, after municipal
solid waste.
• Expected to increase by 30M tons/y as
regulations are tightened
• 2007 EPA report: over past decade, 67 towns in
26 states had groundwater contaminated by
heavy metals from such dumps.
• Pennsylvania and other states are putting fly ash
onto abandoned mine sites.
Adapted from New York Times, Dec 25, 2008 and
Chemical and Engineering News, Feb 23, 2009
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Coal Ash Waste Stream
• Fly ash – 71M tons
– Light, fine particulate removed from exhaust gases
• Bottom ash and slag – 20M tons
– Heavy, coarse residues left after coal is burned in
furnace
• Calcium sulfate and sulfide – 33M tons
– When sulfur is captured in calcium-based “flue gas
desulfurization” air-scrubbing systems
• Ash embedded in limestone – 7M tons
– Ends up in coal mines, from specific processes
Chemical and Engineering News, Feb 23, 2009
Where Does it Go?
• 20% of all ash goes into products
– 14% in concrete and cement
– 6% of sulfur dioxide waste used for gypsum
wallboard
• 23% used on land as structural fill and
road base
• Some is spread on farmland to “amend”
soil or used to fill depleted mines
• David Goss, American Coal Ash
Association – no one is sure where the
other 56% (75M tons) goes
Chemical and Engineering News, Feb 23, 2009
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Kingston Fossil Plant, Harriman, TN
Saul Young, Knoxville News Sentinel
Ponds separated from river only by earthen walls
Kingston Fossil Plant
• Uses 14,000 tons of coal/day
• Provides electricity to 670,000 households
• Before earthen dike failed, the ash pile rose 55
feet above banks of Emory River, which flows
into Clinch River, then into Tennessee River
• The EPA tried to regulate fly ash as a hazardous
waste (Clinton administration), but backed down
after industry opposition (Bush administration)
Adapted from New York Times, December 29, 2008
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
84 acre reservoir
New York Times, December 25, 2008
TVA photo of failed retention pond
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
New York Times, December 25, 2008: Harriman, TN.: 300M
gallons (1.5M cubic yards) of fly ash sludge from Kingston Fossil
Plant flooded over 400 acres and local homes after storage pond
wall failed (possibly related to recent heavy rains, 6” in 10 days)
Involved area was more than 40 times larger than
that affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in
Alaska in 1989
AP Photo, Wade Payne, Discovery News
Next day estimate revised to 5.4M cubic yards (1B gallons)
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Left 275 acres with 6-ft-deep
mass of sludge material
Clinch River
New York Times, December 25, 2008
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Heavy machinery cleaning up
the spill
The TVA Kingston Power Plant
generates 10B kWh/year (enough
for 670K homes)
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
400 acres flooded in Roane County, TN
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
Hundreds of coalfired power plants
operate similarly,
with locations next
to rivers for water
needs and fly ash
in holding ponds
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
90-year-old home built before power plant (1951-5)
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
Coal and Public Health
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Coal train stranded by spill
J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel
TVA Had Rejected Fixes
• Prior wall failures at site; water tunneling
through layers of ash, creating pressure
points on dike
• Global fix would have cost $25M
• In several other states (e.g., MD, MT),
slow leaks resulted in $45M & $25M
settlements
• Clean up costs in TN likely to exceed
hundreds of millions of dollars (will be paid
for by consumers)
Adapted from Tennessean.com, January 4, 2009
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Is Fly Ash Toxic?
• EPA has been studying issue for 30 years
• Spill reignited debate over whether federal government
should regulate coal ash as hazardous waste
– Estimated to cost $5B to $11B/year
– Is classified as solid waste, which is regulated by states;
hazardous waste is regulated by the federal government
• Similar ponds & ash mounds exist at hundreds of coal
plants around US, almost always located near waterways
– Many believe dry disposal would be safer
• Fly ash contains significant amounts of carcinogens and
retains heavy metals present in coal in higher
concentrations
• In 2000, EPA proposed stricter federal controls of coal
ash, but backed away in the face of fierce opposition from
utilities and the coal industry
Adapted from New York Times, Dec 25, 2008 & Jan 6, 2009; and C&EN Feb 23, 2009
New York Times, December 25, 2008
Construction crews worked under lights to clear mud and fly ash from Swan Pond
Road and railroad tracks leading to T.V.A. power plant, Kingston, TN
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
This and a following slide from AP in Washington Post
Dec 29, 2008 (Greenpeace): Coal ash slurry left behind in a
containment pond near Kingston Plant.
Update One Month Later
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
January 23, 2009
27 residents relocated
380 claims filed with TVA (including to buy homes)
> 5,000 mobile air samples taken
> 270 drinking water samples taken
> 200 in-stream water samples taken
50 private groundwater wells sampled
213 acres of exposed ash seeded, fertilized, and mulched
for temporary cover
> 85 tons of grass seed planted
2,114 feet of railway replaced
615 foot dam to protect water intake completed
1,543 foot dam to confine ash being built (40% complete)
Roadways and work areas sprayed with water to
suppress dust
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Coal ash in
ponds by
state
In 2005, 21% of
total ash
generated by
coal plants
ended up in
ponds
Piling up in 32
states
156 plants store
ash in surface
ponds
Ash Storage
• At 1,300 US locations
• 620 sites are active ash landfills, ponds, or
surface impoundments located near power
plants
– 45% of these are wet impoundments, ponds, or
reservoirs (industry estimate, environmental groups
say number is higher)
• The rest are old dump sites
• There are no comprehensive records of
accidents, but one EPA report suggested that 67
of 85 sites with complaints had evidence of
water contamination or other health issue
C&EN, Feb 23, 2009
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
The Spill’s Aftermath
• In 2007 EPA report: 2.2M pounds of toxic
materials were added to holding pond that
failed in a single year
– 45K pounds As, 49K pounds Pb, 1.4M
pounds Ba, 91K pounds Cr, 140K pounds Mn
• Holding pond contained several decades
worth of similar deposits
• Not surprisingly, elevated levels of Pb, Th,
As found in water samples taken near spill
Adapted from New York Times, December 29, 2008
New York Times, December 30, 2008: Aftermath
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
January 1, 2009
“Metal Levels Found High in
Tributary After Spill”
“The findings far exceed levels reported by the Tennessee
Valley Authority, the Environmental Protection Agency or
the Tennessee Department of Environment and
Conservation. Those agencies have reported elevated
levels of thallium, lead and arsenic found near the spill but
have not released the full results of those tests.
The T.V.A. and the state have released only the results of
tests on water sampled from the Tennessee River just after
the spill at a spot six miles away and upstream of the ash
flow, which showed that the water at that spot met drinking
standards.”
Appalachian Voices, Boone, NC
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Appalachian Voices, Boone, NC
Cleanup Update
• Cleanup estimated to cost $825M
• Agreements to purchase 37 homes
completed to February 2009
• Costs will be passed on to TVA customers
(rates are low compared to rest of country)
Adapted from Houston Chronicle, February 12, 2009
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Update, March 8, 2009, New York Times. Photo
from Wade Payne, AP.
Environment Report, Feb 16, 2009. Concerns regarding fly
ash going airborne as material sits and dries.
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Third Such Disaster in Past Few
Decades of > 100M Gallons
• As coal plants have gotten better at controlling air
pollution, toxic substances that would have been spewed
into air have been shifted to solid byproducts like fly ash.
• Production of such post-combustion waste has
increased sharply.
• Kingston plant, surrounded by residential tracts, had little
room to grow and piled its ash higher and higher.
• Officials said the pond whose wall gave way was not
over capacity.
• Environmental groups have long pressed for coal ash to
be buried in lined landfills to prevent the leaching of
metals into the soil and groundwater.
Adapted from New York Times, December 25, 2008
Fly Ash Concentrates
Heavy Metals
• The fly ash produced by coal plants is
more radioactive than that generated by
nuclear counterparts.
• Fly ash contains up to 100 times more
radiation than nuclear waste.
• Due to coal’s content of uranium and
thorium and how these are concentrated in
fly ash.
Scientific American, December 7, 2007
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Piles of coal ash near
coal ash pond at
Louisville Gas &
Electric's Cane Rune
Road generating
station, one of four coal
ash ponds in KY
considered high-risk
(could cause death or
serious damage with
failure).
KY leads the nation in
coal ash production.
Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY
December 27, 2008
TVA’s Widows Creek Fossil Plant, AL (NYT, 1-10-09).
10,000 gallons of slurry (from gypsum pond)
spilled into tributary of Tennessee River 3
weeks after Kingston
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Louisville Gas & Electric’s Cane Rune Road plant,
Louisville, KY (Courier-Journal)
Knoxvillebiz.com January 4, 2009
850K cubic yards spilled
Fly ash spill at Martins Creek steam plant, August 2005, near
Lower Mount Bethel Township, PA. PPL paid $37M for cleanup
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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Coal and Public Health
Alabama Power Miller Steam Plant
•
•
•
•
TN disaster getting attention at many other sites
12.5M tons coal/year; electricity for 800K homes
Coal from Wyoming by train
Generates 1,200 tons ash/day (fly ash is fine
and airborne; bottom ash, larger particles,
collects in bottom of boilers)
• 60% of ash sold for use in construction
materials; the rest is stacked in terraced landfill
(ash mound) or mixed with water and stored in
77 acre pond (70-80 ft deep); contaminants sink
to bottom.
• Eight similar sites in Alabama
Birmingham News, January 4, 2009
Jan 6, 2009
1,300 coal ash
ponds similar to
Kingston Plant in US
Most are
unregulated and
unmonitored
Some up to 1,500
acres
Coal ash is used
throughout US for
construction fill, mine
reclamation,
agriculture (improves
soil’s ability to hold
water), and other
uses
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
30
Coal and Public Health
“Clean Coal” and Carbon
Dioxide
Geo-sequestration I
• Pump compressed CO2 directly into
the ground
• Has been done by oil industry for
years, helping to maintain head
pressure in oil wells
• Proposed for conventional coal
burning plants, but CO2 stream is
very dilute
• For every ton of anthracite burned,
four tons CO2 generated
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
31
Coal and Public Health
Bottom line
CCS:
tremendous
uncertainties
2005
Schematic of carbon dioxide
capture & storage options
Sources, capture, and storage
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
32
Coal and Public Health
Geo-sequestration II
• Cannot usually be put underground where
produced, so must be transported
• Must then be compressed before injection
– consumes ~20% of energy yielded by
burning in first place
• Storage must last thousands of years;
unclear how well ground storage does
with keeping in place
• Huge volumes – at current rates, 12 cubic
miles of liquid CO2 into earth’s crust every
day
– Perhaps will have small role, 10%?
Other Challenges to CCS
• World on schedule to build 1,400 GW of
coal-fired power plants by 2030 –
doubling of current capacity
• During plant lifetimes, this will release
140 GT of CO2
• Taking all into consideration, we must
find a way to not release around 175
GT CO2 over the next 50 years
• For coal using conventional technology,
flue gases are 14% CO2, which must be
scrubbed and concentrated - $, space,
retrofitting issues
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
33
Coal and Public Health
1751-2002
For all uses
Many following slides from:
2003-2030
Electricity only
Lifetime emissions from
power plants
“A Gargantuan Technical Feat”
• For just 4% of annual global emissions
– 250 million tons annually
• Would require injection of 25 to 35
million barrels per day; huge concerns
about the volumes
• CCS industrial scale projects currently
in Norway, Canada, Algeria (mainly for
oil field use)
– But MT, not GT, scale
– 11 more planned
• Probably not deployable on any large
scale until 2030, and perhaps as late as
2040
Many following slides from:
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
34
Coal and Public Health
Salah gas project, Algeria
Raw natural gas too high in CO2 here; excess
removed by chemical absorbers, compressed,
injected into brine formation 2 km below surface
Can inject into depleted oil and gas reservoirs;
subterranean brine formations; coal seams; mineral
areas that form carbonates; and into deep ocean
Sound
waves for
seismic
monitoring
Porous
strata,
brine, 2040 m thick
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
35
Coal and Public Health
CO2 Injection
IGCC Technology
• Integrated gasification combined cycle
power plant
• Capital costs 20% higher than
conventional
• Fossil fuel + oxygen + steam in hot
gasifier Æ fuel gas of CO + H2; CO +
steam Æ CO2 + H2
• CO2 easy to separate
• Better for SO2 and other pollutants too
• IGCC efficiency same as conventional,
~40%; CCS drops both to ~30% - may
be improvable
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
36
Coal and Public Health
Many believe that
IGCC coal power
plants with CCS
are the solution.
IGCC: partial
oxidation to
convert coal into
synthesis gas
(CO + H2).
Much easier to
remove CO2 from
syngas than flue
gases.
One in planning
Long Beach, CA.
Storage Risks
• Release of CO2 from storage site
• Two major classes: gradual and
sudden; former is OK but must be
very slow; latter must be extremely
unlikely
• CO2 is heavier than air, so in lowlying areas it collects and can lead to
suffocation
• From the ocean storage it could
trigger landslides and tsunamis
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
37
Coal and Public Health
FutureGen
• One centerpiece of GW Bush Administration for
the country’s first zero-emissions power plant, in
downstate Illinois
• Costs skyrocketed (government paid most of
cost), after five years of effort, US DOE cancelled
project in January 2008
• House Science Committee report: “In retrospect,
FutureGen appears to have been nothing more
than a public relations ploy for Bush
Administration officials to make it appear to
public and world that US was doing something to
address global warming”
• 2009 stimulus bill includes $3.4 billion for CCS
research
• Environmental groups are urging Obama
administration to declare moratorium on all new
coal power plants until CCS is available
Adapted from The Nation April 2009
Battle for Hearts and
Minds
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
38
Coal and Public Health
Efforts of CEED and Americans for Balanced
Energy Choices
• In early GW Bush Administration, these
groups repositioned coal as lifeblood of
US economy
– New regulations would be disastrous
• GW Bush broke campaign promise to
regulate CO2, appointed coal lobbyists to
top positions in administration
– Clean Air Act was weakened
– Standards for mountaintop removal were
eased
• CEED and ABEC became ACCCE in early
2008
Adapted from The Nation April 2009
American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
• $40M campaign to improve coal’s image from
mining companies, power plants, railroads, rural
electric co-ops
• Spent $10M in 2008 lobbying on climate change
legislation
• Grew out of earlier efforts (1990s) of Western
Fuels Association (consortium of coal producers)
and the Greening Earth Society (advocated that
warming could help humanity)
– Worked in partnership with the Center for Energy and
Economic Development (CEED), which called Kyoto
“wrong in its science, wrong in its approach, wrong to
surrender, wrong for America” – founded by GW
Bush’s Treasury Secretary John Snow
Adapted from The Nation April 2009
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
39
Coal and Public Health
American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
• Now claim that global warming is a real
threat, but that clean coal can help solve
the problem
• Message has changed – now it’s a protechnology message
• The industry, through ACCCE, is getting
ready to influence attempts to regulate
CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air
Act, and legislation regarding cap-andtrade or carbon taxation
Adapted from The Nation April 2009
Dueling Coal Ads. March 27, 2009
“The coal industry says clean coal technology is the answer to
America’s energy crisis. Environmental groups say clean coal
doesn't exist. Both groups are spending millions of dollars on
television ads and YouTube videos to make their point.”
“Affordable, abundant, domestic”
“Leave climate change to us” Dressed
as CEO, he gets smudge on nose when
using
“It smells so clean – clean coal clean”
“Independence, clean, use responsibly”
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
40
Coal and Public Health
Conclusions
• From a public health perspective, there is no
such notion as “clean coal”
• Coal quantities have likely been over-reported,
certainly in terms of energy
• Because of climate change, we must stop using
coal as soon as possible
• Carbon capture and storage is not achievable on
the necessarily large scales for the foreseeable
future
• We must make the transition to the next energy
regime
• Powerful economic interests have taken
opposite positions – there is much work to do
© 2009, Brian S. Schwartz
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