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Tyrone Coal

Clean Energy - If not now, When?

The Alternatives

  • Wind
  • Solar
  • Others

Xcel / NSP

  • Proposal
  • The Good
  • The Bad
  • The Ugly

Tryone Site

  • Nuclear history
  • Land Theft
  • Natural Area

Interesting facts about and coal-fired power plants,  
mercury, and other pollutants:

  1. Coal is the number one source of total US electricity production  (54%). (Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook, 1998) .
  2. Out of the entire US electric industry, coal-fired power plants contribute 96% of sulfur dioxide emissions (SO2), 93% of nitrogen  oxide emissions (NOx), 88% of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and  99% of mercury emissions. (Clean the Air, “Power Plant Air Pollution Problem,” Fact sheet).
  3. Coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of mercury  pollution in the US (U.S. EPA, Office of Water, “Air Pollution and Water Quality:  Atmospheric Deposition Initiative:  Where is the Air Pollution Coming From?”) Available online at http://www.epa.gov/owowwtr1/oceans/airdep/air5html , responsible for 33% of the total mercury  emissions from all known manmade sources nationwide. (U.S. EPA, Mercury Report to Congress, 1997, Vol. 1).
  4. According to the US National Wildlife Federation (NWF), a single  100 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant emits approximately 25  pounds of mercury a year.  (National Wildlife Federation, “Clean the Rain, Clean the Lakes:  Mecury in Rain is Polluting the Great Lakws,” p. 4, September 1999).
  5. According to the US Center for Clean Air Policy, 50% of the mercury  emitted from coal-fired power plants can travel up to 600 miles from  the power plant. (Center for Clean Air Policy, “Power Plant Emissions and Water Quality,” October 1997, Part 1, p.13).
  6. In 1994, mercury emissions by coal plants in the US reached 51 tons. (U.S. EPA, “Electric Utility Steam Generating Units Hazardous Air Pollutant Emission Study,” (Feb. 24, 1998), p.ES-6, Table ES-2).
  7. According to NWF, as little as 0.002 pounds of mercury a year can  contaminate a 25-acre lake to the point where fish are unsafe to eat. (National Wildlife Federation, “Clean the Rain, Clean the Lakes:  Mecury in Rain is Polluting the Great Lakws,” p. 4, September 1999).
  8. Methylmercury contamination in food sources as low as one part  per million has been shown to cause death in some some animals.  (Factsheet, Great Waters Program, National Wildlife Federation).
  9. Coal emits 29% more carbon per unit of energy than oil, and 80%  more than natural gas. (Worldwatch Institute, “Phasing out Coal:  Environmental Concerns, Subsidy Cuts Fuel Decline,” Press Release). CO2 represents the major portion of  greenhouse gases.  Over the last 30 years, the concentration of  greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased by 30%, (i.e. the  human-influenced phenomenon called global warming).  Nine of the  ten warmest years in recorded history have occurred in the last  decade. (Physicians for Social Responsibility, “Death by Degrees:  The Emerging Health Crisis of Climate Change in Georgia,” February 2000, p.6.1)
  10. In 1997, pollution controls from power plants to reduce acid rain cost  approximately $100 per ton.  (“Heavy Breathing,” National Journal, January 4, 1997)
  11. Every year, nearly 600 coal and oil-fired power plants produce over  100 million tons of sludge waste. (Citizens Coal Council, Hoosier Environmental Council, Clean Air Task Force, “Laid to Waste:  The Dirty Secret of Combustion Waste from America's Power Plants,” February 2000, p. 1.3)   Forty percent of the coals waste  landfills and 80 percent of the coal waste surface impoundments do  not have liners, and less than half the landfills and only 1 percent of  impoundments have groundwater monitors.  (“Fast Facts on Air,” A Sourcebook for the Clean Air Advocate, Clean Air Network, 2000)