IN THE NEWS

• Physicians for Social Responsibility Report details 'coal's assault on human health' (by Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette, November 18, 2009).  Read the executive summary of the report.
• DEQ will propose CO2 emission limits.  Environmental group hails EPA ruling; industry fears heavy cost (by Karl Puckett, Great Falls Tribune, December 8, 2009)
  

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Montana already has five existing power plants, with six new plants proposed (see map), despite the fact that Montana currently exports more than half the power produced in state.

There are many problems associated with burning coal to generate electricity, affecting both public health and the environment.

U.S. Supreme Court turns down utilities over mercury emissions (AP, 2/24/09)  The Supreme Court is refusing a request by electric utility companies to step into a case concerning the regulation of mercury emissions from power plants.

If new coal plants are to be built, employing Integrated Gasification/Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology with Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) could significantly reduce the environmental toll of coal use.  CCS is still in its infancy, however, and placing too much emphasis on capturing and sequestering carbon from new coal-fired plants could divert resources away from efforts to promote renewable energy and addressing global warming pollutants from existing coal-fired power plants.

Otter Creek Coal Tracts

The Otter Creek coal tracts in southeastern Montana contain 1.3 BILLION tons of coal.  If mined and burned, that coal would add 2.5 BILLION tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere—62 times Montana’s current emissions!  Strip mining will destroy the area, harm water quality, threaten family agriculture and require the building of the Tongue River Railroad.  MEIC is working to compel the State Land Board not to lease these tracts for coal development.

Coal-fired Power Plants

MEIC is opposing the construction of several new coal-fired power plants in Montana, both because they are not needed and because they are environmentally unsound:

• Highwood Generating Station

• Roundup Power Project
  

• Thompson River Co-Gen

• The Hardin Generating Station

• Nelson Creek Project

• Colstrip

For more information

• AUDIO:  We Shall Remain – Life with and after coal
  This half-hour special by High Plains News/WORK Media looks at the effects of our reliance on coal-fired power on our air, water, climate and communities.  MEIC's Anne Hedges is interviewed.
  
• MEIC and 108 other organizations sign letter to Congress  to call on EPA to strictly regulate waste from coal fired plants
  
• State Seeks Comments on Leasing Otter Creek Coal
  
• MEIC Files Suit over Highwood CO2 Emissions NOTE: This lawsuit has implications for all power plants in the state.]
• View the PBS special Dark Energy: The Clean Coal Controversy (first aired July 29, 2008). This hour-long documentary examines both the potential for liquid coal to meet energy needs and the very real environmental and economic costs of the technology. It also scrutinizes proposals to capture carbon dioxide emissions and pump them deep into the ground in the hopes of trapping the CO2 there for hundreds of years. Interviews include Governor Brian Schweitzer, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force William Anderson, Congressman Henry Waxman, and MEIC Program Director Anne Hedges.
  
• Read Tom Powers' commentaries on Dirty Coal, Coal and Economic Development, the New Coal Boom in Montana, Coal Industry Layoffs, Missoula's potential buy-in to Great Falls' coal-fired power plant, and The Energy Industry’s Attack on the Regulation of Greenhouse Gases

• The Tide is Turning against Coal, which includes a list of recent NEWS ARTICLES about coal and climate change.
• Read a letter that Dr. James Hansen (director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute) wrote to Great Britain's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown on December 19, 2007 calling for Brown to implement a moratorium on new coal plants in Europe and England.

• Read an affidavit filed by Dr. James Hansen (379 K pdf) in connection with MEIC’s lawsuit against the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for failing to regulate CO2 emissions from the Highwood Generating Station.