Coal plants belong in the nation's past

5/18/07
Connecticut has long struggled to get other parts of the country to pay attention to its air pollution problems. Through little fault of its own, this state has some of the most vexing air-quality problems in the country. Pollution and particulate matter from the Southeast and Midwest make their way up into the atmosphere and settle in this neighborhood, making Connecticut pay for the rest of the country’s unclean ways.
The state isn’t completely blameless — we’ve had our own struggles with dirty power plants and motor vehicle congestion. And, too, the state uses its share of power from the grid, so it’s not as though the plants in Ohio don’t provide any benefit to the region. But it’s proven that we take a disproportionate share of the negative externalities.
The federal government has been nudged, slowly, in the other direction, away from the dirtiest power plants. But a report this week tells of a Depression-era program designed to bring electricity to rural areas, mostly in the Southeast, that remains in use, and is paving the way for a new era of coal plants.
The facilities, which spew carbon dioxide — fouling our air and contributing to global warming — run against the government’s expressed priority to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
The nation’s rural electric cooperatives reportedly plan to spend $35 billion to build conventional coal plants over the next 10 years, enough to offset all state and federal efforts to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over that time. It’s a blow to Connecticut’s fight to clean its air, and it also runs counter to our national interest.
U.S. policy needs to focus on energy, both supply and demand. The dirtiest power-producing methods need to be phased out, not given a jump-start through low-interest loans — the nation needs to put coal and oil in its past. The consequences in terms of global warming are stark. At the same time, increasing efficiency and conservation can cut demand, allowing a move to new technologies apart from the polluters of past generations.
Giving new life to coal-fired power plants, however well-intentioned, is bad policy. It hurts Connecticut, and will come back to hurt the world. A forward-looking policy can not allow this program to continue.