Coal-burning pollution: It makes us sick:

Pollution from coal-fired power plants, like the one being proposed, emit numerous air toxins, many of which affect brain development in a fetus or child. They cause asthma attacks, coughing and wheezing, diseases of the lungs and heart, and damage to the development of fetuses and young children.

(“The Dirty Truth About Coal,” Sierra Club, May 2008)

One harmful air pollutant from coal-fire power plants, mercury, enters our food chain after it rains down into our streams and lakes, poisons fish and seafood and accumulates in the animals and people who eat them. Kentucky has an advisory against eating fish caught anywhere in the state, due to mercury pollution. The proposed Smith plant will make the mercury problem even worse because it will be burning waste coal, which has an even higher concentration of mercury.

(KY Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, 2008 and US EPA “Mercury and Utilities”, 2001)

Children are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of the air pollution that comes from coal-burning power plants. .

Coal-burning pollution: Making our planet sick.

Coal burning power plants, like the proposed Smith plant, emit carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide that have devastating effects to this planet.

Coal burning power plants are the single largest source of greenhouse gases that are the cause of our global climate crisis.

Coal-burning pollution: Enough is enough.

Kentuckians are already exposed to pollution from coal-burning power plants throughout the country and from 44 coal-fired power plants in our state or within 30 miles of our borders. We are already over-saturated with pollution from burning coal. In addition to other pollutants, these coal-burning power plants also emit particulate matter, known as soot, which is one of the most deadly type of air pollutants in our country. Every year, the soot and other pollutants from these plants send hundreds of Kentuckians to an early grave due to illnesses such as asthma, lung cancer and heart attacks. This pollution causes tens of thousands of lost work-days due to illness, hundreds of lung cancer deaths, and thousands of heart attacks and asthma attacks. We are already exposed to more soot and other pollutants than we can handle.

(Based on US EPA data and reported by Clean Air Task Force)

Coal-burning pollution: Not the best way forward.

As part of the air permit, EKPC has failed to fully consider any alternatives to building the Smith plant. The cleaner, cheaper decision for EKPC would be to abandon plans to build Smith and invest instead in energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy.

Efficient, clean energy solutions are readily available. From compact fluorescent light bulbs to efficient appliances and tighter, well-insulated homes, efficiency measures reduce electricity usage and can help avoid the need for expensive new power generation. Clean renewable energy from solar, wind or hydro sources is expanding all over the nation including in the southeast US and bringing new economic development opportunities. Efficiency initiatives combined with use of renewable energy sources would generate more than 8,000 new jobs in Kentucky over the next three years.

(“An Analysis of the Economic Impact of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the East Kentucky Power Cooperative Region,” Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies, July 2009)

Energy efficiency programs are more affordable than new coal plants. As the cost of electricity from coal is rising, the benefits of efficiency and renewable energy are increasingly clear. Also, energy efficiency projects, on average, cost only 3.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of energy saved. Yet, the projected costs of power from the new Smith plant range from 9 to 11 cents per kilowatt-hour.

(“The Right Decision for Changing Times,” TR Rose Associates, 2009)