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LEXINGTON--If ever there was a question about the envir- onmental hazards from coal, it was dispelled with a recent study showing that the production of electricity at coal-fired power plants carries a deadly health risk.
The Harvard School of Public Health determined that soot and noxious chemicals emitted by coal-fired plants cause about 15,000 premature deaths annually in the United States. By comparison, 16,000 Americans are killed each year in drunken-driving accidents and 17,000 are victims of homicides.
The amount of coal being burned to produce electricity in the United States has reached 1.1 billion tons a year, and is rising. No longer considered a fuel of the past, coal is beginning to replace natural gas as a power-plant fuel in parts of the country where electrical companies are unable to obtain long-term contracts for gas at affordable prices.
Coal is also benefiting from the Bush administration's decision to relax air pollution rules for coal-fired power plants.
Of the new electric generation planned for the United States from now to 2005, as much as 16 percent is to come from coal. That is a major increase from two years ago when no coal-fired power plants were on the drawing board, and it is a sign that coal, whose reserves are estimated to be enough to power the country for the next 275 years, is on the rebound.
The worst polluters are older coal plants. Most of the units are in the Southeast and Midwest. After more than 30 years of operation, they are still exempt from the federal Clean Air Act's pollution controls.
Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency decided that older plants would not have to upgrade pollution-control equipment even if major improvements are made at the plants. Although the ruling is being appealed, it has undermined lawsuits that the Justice Department brought against utilities that own the plants.
Coal is the principal power-plant fuel. It is used to produce 50 percent of Virginia's electricity and 56 percent of the nation's power. But coal-fired electrical generation has severe adverse effects on public health and the environment. Besides emitting sulfur dioxide--which forms acid rain, and nitrogen oxides, which create smog--coal-burning releases large amounts of chemicals and toxic particles into the air, including arsenic, mercury, and lead.
Coal plants also release huge amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that the overwhelming majority of scientists believe is causing the planet's average temperature to rise, setting off extreme weather events ranging from melting glaciers and rising water levels to prolonged droughts.
Now researchers say there might be a link between the West Nile virus and climate change, since drought helps the mosquito species that plays a major role in spreading the virus. Then there are the devastating health and environmental effects of coal mining.
Think about the mining accidents; black lung deaths; slurry pond failures; flash floods from strip-mined hillsides and mountaintops; and streams and rivers destroyed by acidic runoffs from mining wastes.
Those who look to "clean-coal technology" as the answer ignore the fact that clean coal exists in name only. Take the state-of-the-art coal-gasification plant near Tampa, a 625-megawatt unit built largely with federal funds that converts coal into gas.
According to EPA, in 2000 the plant emitted 7,600 tons of sulfur dioxide, 2,800 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 2,597,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
It is ironic and troubling that this is happening at a time when EPA is continuing to deny financial credits to a proven energy technology that does more than any other to reduce pollution. Nuclear power emits none of the pollutants that cause acid rain, smog, and global warming, yet it doesn't qualify for tradable credits under the Clean Air Act that are awarded to coal plants that install pollution controls.
Allowing more pollution from coal plants is especially dangerous for people living in Virginia, since we already have more than our share of acid rain and smog. The public interest in combating air pollution and climate change requires that we adopt a more rational policy toward nuclear power.
Congress should pass legislation that would give clean-air tax credits for the production of electricity from nuclear power and other noncarbon energy sources. It needs to provide full funding for the nuclear waste program so that no time is lost in licensing and developing an underground waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must reform the licensing process for new nuclear plants in order to prevent unnecessary delays so that plants using standardized designs can be built in five years or less.
Together, these actions would show that we are serious about maintaining reliable and affordable supplies of electricity that safeguard public health and protect the environment.
BRUCE BOLLER is a physics professor at the Virginia Military Institute.