(no subject)

[jackshoegazer]

I am drinking alternately hot jasmine green tea and iced lemon water while writing a six-page paper for my Environmental Issues class on the controversy surrounding the three coal-burning power plants on the isthmus here in Madison.

Apparently all three of them have no pollution controls or scrubbers whatsoever, in clear violation of the Clean Air Act.  The Sierra Club has sued them to get the problem fixed but even though they won the suit, nothing has changed.  I've contacted MG&E to find out what the excuse is, and I'm waiting to hear back from someone.  I found one article talking about how they'll stop burning coal at the plant that was built in 1902 by 2011, but that doesn't really assuage my worries.

As you were.

Comments

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Yes! That is precisely why we have so many air-quality alert days in Madison. And I quote:

There are three coal-burning power plants on Madison’s isthmus alone – the Madison Gas & Electric Blount Street Plant, the University’s Charter Street Plant and the Department of Administration Capitol Heating Plant. These three are “the largest sources of soot, smog, mercury, and global warming pollution in Dane County.” The oldest, the Blount Street Generating Station, was built in 1902, when there were no environmental protections at all. None of these stations are using scrubbers or modern pollution controls which could cut this pollution by up to 90%.