Our Chapter has received a small grant from the National Sierra Club to assist our work in fighting air pollution and clean renewable energy. We have hired Melissa Blakley with this funding. Her job will be to work with volunteers to educate the public about the environmental and health consequences created by coal burning power plants, and to promote energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy options. She will concentrate on Kansas City and Springfield, as there presently are proposals to build new coal burning power plants proposed in those locations.
Great Plains Power, an unregulated company created by KCPL, has recently begun the permit process for building an 850MW coal fired unit near the existing KCPL Iatan plant in Weston, Missouri, in Platte County. City Utilities of Springfield (CU) is also planning a coal-fired power plant near the Springfield community.
Coal burning power plants create huge emissions. They generate acid rain chemicals, emit air-borne mercury, exacerbate smog and contribute to global climate change.
Mercury is a neurotoxin that evidence suggests can cause mental retardation and other neurological disorders in fetuses and young children. The Missouri Department of Health has issued a statewide mercury advisory again for 2003. The contamination levels in certain fish species put children, pregnant women and women of childbearing years at risk. The health advisory states they should not eat any largemouth bass anywhere in the state of Missouri.
Other pollutants associated with burning coal include, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are linked to asthma attacks, lung disease and premature deaths. Children are particularly susceptible to the effects of air pollution because they breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults, and because their lungs are still developing. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that people living within a 30 mile radius of utility smokestacks in their study had a 3 to 4 times greater chance of premature death than those living outside the area.
Also, coal-fired power plants emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide, which is the primary greenhouse gas causing global warming. We know global warming has the potential to disrupt virtually all the lovely outdoor habitats we have fought to protect over the years, as well as making life difficult for humans in many ways.
Utility companies frequently choose coal-burning units when they are expanding, citing coal as a cheap and clean fuel. Utility companies consider coal cheap because the costs to human health and to the environment are silently passed on to the public, borne by individual citizens and taxpayers rather than by the facility. The public, as well as businesses, pay for the artificially low electricity rates by increased visits to the doctor, hospitalizations, increased insurance rates, lost workdays and even premature deaths.
The Sierra Club believes Missouri should be planning its future with safe, clean, renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, and with drawing on the great potential of energy efficiency. These strategies will promote healthier living conditions, will be financially beneficial for the affected citizen ratepayers, and will help to preserve the environment.
Working committees in Kansas City and Springfield have been formed and volunteers are sought to assist in various capacities with this project. You are encouraged to join in! For more information contact Melissa Blakley at 816-741-8200, or email m.blakley@earthlink.net