From the Sierra Club (https://www.sierraclub.org/):
Waste coal power plants claim to clean up environmental hazards left behind by bankrupt coal mining companies, but they come with their own set of environmental and public health hazards. They are also uneconomic – which is why the industry is asking for a whopping $765 million tax credit to stay afloat over the next 17 years.
Tell your PA Senator to say NO to tax credits for dirty waste coal at https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Pennsylvania?actionId=AR0179871.
Waste coal has less energy and more toxic heavy metals than conventional coal. When it is burned, some of these toxins are released as air pollution, and the rest remain in coal ash that is put right back on site and can leach into waterways. Some waste coal piles have been overgrown by vegetation, so just the process of digging them up increases polluted runoff. Finally, burning waste coal creates about 50% more carbon dioxide per unit of energy than conventional coal.
Don’t pay polluters to put our health and climate at risk!
There are better ways to deal with the problem of abandoned waste coal piles than just burning them. Some can be stabilized with soil cover and revegetated. Others can be moved to approved landfills using fees paid by mining companies.
These safer solutions cost money, but burning waste coal never was a free lunch, and certainly would be less so if this tax giveaway were approved.
Leave a Reply