As Showdown Looms, Full Story on Coal Plant is Hidden From Public View
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You have heard it here before, but did you know that vehicle emissions are the leading source of pollutants in the air -- not electrical generating plants?
The magazine Michigan Science, published by no less a source than the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, notes in the recent issue:
"The Detroit Free Press (in a critical article quoting two medical doctors) fails to mention that the leading source of nitrogen dioxide in the state is not coal combustion but vehicle emissions."
Therefore, an environmentalist really seriously seeking to eliminate pollution should be aiming at stopping vehicle traffic before turning attention to coal-fired generating plants.
The set of facts as seen by this corner leads to the conclusion that this is a power struggle by those with seriously inflated egos relative to their own ideas of how the world should be run. In a practical matter, opposition to increasing electrical generating capacity is only self-defeating for the area economy and to environmentalist goals of more alternative energy.
This is sounding more and more like a Catch 22 or a Who's On First comedy scenario rather than any kind of practical approach to improving our society and quality of life.
The truth is hard to find but here it is as this column sees it: we need power in the tri-county area, especially for the Hemlock Semiconductor (HSC) plant of the Dow Corning Corp. that is supercharging our economic future.
Not only that, but innovations in vehicles and coal combustion, contrary to some public opinion, "have resulted in a downward trend" in pollution emissions. Did you know that?
Besides that, if the opposing groups are successful in stopping the plant expansion, they will deal a blow to the very trend they purport to support -- alternative energy. Read on and find out why.
Huge supplies of power, up to $500,000 worth a year, are needed to supply HSC and a host of other associated enterprises that the governments of the tri-county area are attempting to get to move here.
In fact, an international marketing effort has been started by Saginaw and Bay Futures and Midland Tomorrow to lure companies to locate near the source of the raw materials crucial to the solar and wind energy industries.
What sense would it make to spend millions to lure companies here and end up with inadequate power for their operations?
And why would environmentalists want to restrict power to Dow Corning -- the very company that is a world leader in production of materials vital to expansion of the solar energy industry?
That is why opposition to this expansion is so wrong-headed and perverse. It works against the trends that the nation and the state are attempting to jump start.
The magazine Science added: "In addition, the Department of Environmental Quality's monitoring of nitrogen dioxide indicates that concentrations of the pollutant in Michigan are already well below the national guideline of 0.5 parts per million."
And, given the polluting supremacy of vehicles, would the tree-huggers throw themselves in the middle of the freeway in their quest for air purity?
As they apparently are gearing up to do in an attempt to stop the power plant from going forward.
Mercury and lead contamination also are on the decline, and sulfur dioxide in Michigan is less than one third of federal air quality standards, according to Science, a quarterly publication edited by Bruce Edward Walker.
Stopping the proposed $2.5 billion Consumers Energy expansion at the Karn-Weadock facility is not only a futile gesture that would appease so-called environmentalists but would amount to economic suicide.
Thank heaven for the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce that is organizing government, business and labor leaders in favor of constructing a new 800-megawatt, $2.3 billion coal-fired power plant at the Consumers Energy Karn-Weadock complex in Hampton Township.
The Sierra Club, a group with an admirable purpose, unfortunately is mindlessly organizing groups in opposition to the project. That position would only reduce the local tax base, load more governmental costs on homes and reduce our quality of life -- a position exactly at cross-purposes to their stated goals.
Solar and wind are developing fields and will contribute a share of our energy, perhaps 10-15 percent, but there must be a phase-in period before they can be counted on to assume the job that coal is now doing.
Michael D. Seward, chamber president and CEO, said his organization plans to urge business people to attend public hearings scheduled for April on the plant's draft air permit, and comment positively to the Department of Environmental Quality that is accepting comments on the plan through May 6.
Hearings on the Karn-Weadock proposed expansion are slated at 7 p.m. April 14 and again on April 15 at noon and 7 p.m. at the Bay Valley Resort and Conference Center in Frankenlust Township.
"We need to make sure we band together and not allow people like that to come in and tell us what they're going to do," Mr. Seward told the news media recently.
Tiffany Hartung, associate regional representative for the Sierra Club in Royal Oak, said her group plans to hold an April 7 workshop at 6 p.m. at the Bay County Community Center in Bay City to prepare opponents to testify at the hearings.
A local group called Citizens Exploring Clean Energy has formed in opposition to the new plant. The Sierra Club has expertise in fighting coal plants through the U.S. and wants to be a resource for residents, Ms. Hartung said.
The Sierra Club has sent a notice of the workshop to local environmental groups, and the notice is posted on a Saginaw Valley State University Web site.
"We need to stop the expansion of yesterday's technology of coal-fired power," the notice reads, "and instead create a clean energy future for Bay County" through energy efficiency and renewable sources.
Mr. Seward said 69 organizations and local governments have passed resolutions in favor of the plant, supporting it based on the new jobs and tax money construction of the plant would add.
"We'll be asking, literally, a representative from every local governmental unit in Bay County to testify at these hearings," he said.
Seward argues that the new plant would be cleaner than existing generators at Karn-Weadock, and more energy is needed in the region to provide energy for the development of the wind and solar alternative energy sources in the area.
"By building the Karn-Weadock facility, we have the true potential of being the energy development center of this part of the Upper Midwest," he said.
That certainly could happen if our modern version of the Luddites will back off and let it occur. ###
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