Environmental Research Foundation [Printer-friendly version]
March 21, 2010 (Revised Jan. 13, 2011)
SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED COAL PLANT IN LINDEN
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The PurGen coal plant proposed for a site in Linden, N.J. recently
applied to the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for
an air permit. A PDF copy of the permit can be found here:
http://goo.gl/dmDa. I refer to this document as "PurGen Permit
Application" and page numbers refer to the PDF page numbers (not the
numbers printed on the paper pages).
The Purgen coal plant was initially announced to be a 500-megawatt
plant but has since been described consistently as a 750 megawatt
plant.
Sources of all the information in the PurGen coal plant fact sheet:
Overviews of the proposed PurGen One coal plant
See Kate Galbraith, "A Plan for U.S. Emissions to Be Buried Under
Sea," The New York Times, April 18, 2009, and Brian T. Murray,
"Proposed Facility in Linden Would Capture CO2," The Star-Ledger
(Newark, N.J.) April 26, 2009.
What is IGCC technology?
The proposed coal plant will use a coal-plant technology called IGCC
("integrated gasification combined cycle").
To learn about IGCC, see Wikipedia and, for more detail, see U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency publication EPA-430/R-06/006, titled
"Environmental Footprints and Costs of Coal-Based Integrated
Gasification Combined Cycle and Pulverized Coal Technologies" (July
1, 2006), authored by the contractor Nexant in San Francisco,
California.
How much money will the coal plant bring to Linden?
Claims that the proposed coal plant will bring $4.5 to $5 billion in
new investment to Linden are preposterous exaggerations:
http://tinyurl.com/mrdale
Environmental Justice Maps of New Jersey Counties
Maps showing the distribution of EPA-reported "environmental hazards"
in all 21 counties in New Jersey (and an explanation of data sources
and methods) can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/mjd2s9
Norway's Problems with Sub-seabed Burial of CO2 and Petroleum
Wastes
The Sleipner carbon sequestration experiment has been pumping CO2 and
oily wastes into the Utsira geologic formation beneath the North Sea
for 13 years. Recently the Utsira formation has been found to be
leaking oily wastes to the surface, and CO2 is moving horizontally
through the formation much faster than predicted. See
http://tinyurl.com/m98msz, http://goo.gl/VOfP and
http://tinyurl.com/lhlems The Norwegian experience with carbon
sequestration is hardly a model, and it is not one we would want
replicated in the U.S.
When scientists performed a seismic study in 2001-2002 to try to find
the buried CO2 at Sleipner, they could only confirm finding 19% of
what had been injected. They assume that 100% is still buried, but
they can't be sure.
An Experiment to Bury Carbon Dioxide Beneath the Atlantic Ocean
Estimates of annual amounts of carbon dioxide to be buried beneath the
Atlantic Ocean can be found in: Kate Galbraith, "A Plan for U.S.
Emissions to Be Buried Under Sea," The New York Times, April 18,
2009, in Brian T. Murray, "Proposed Facility in Linden Would Capture
CO2," The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.) April 26, 2009 and in Bruce
Upbin, "Bury Our Carbon at sea," Forbes Magazine online November 3,
2009.
If the plant buried 5 million tons of its own CO2 each year, plus 5
million tons gathered from other local CO2 emitters, and did this for
50 years, it would bury 500 million tons of CO2 beneath the ocean
floor. If the plant were to operate for 70 years, it would bury
700 million tons of CO2 beneath the ocean.
In Concentrated Form, CO2 is a Deadly Gas
This is discussed, with links to original sources, in Peter Montague,
"Carbon dioxide poisoning incidents" (New Brunswick, N.J.:
Environmental Research Foundation, July 9, 2009).
Where will PurGen One get its coal?
The source of PurGen One's coal has been identified as southwestern
Pennsylvania. See Peter Montague, "Sub-sea Carbon Storage for Hudson
Coal Plant" (New Brunswick, N.J.: Environmental Research Foundation,
June 23, 2009). Specifically, see slide #5 of the PowerPoint
presentation by Robert H. Williams "What is to be done with coal
power?" dated April 1, 2009. Naturally, there is nothing that
requires the Linden coal plant to use Pennsylvania coal. It could just
as easily use coal from southern Appalachia (Virginia, West Virginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee). Pennsylvania coal is mined using a technique
called "long wall mining" and coal from southern Appalachia uses
mountaintop removal mining. Both methods are massively destructive
of the environment and of human communities, but in very different
ways.
The Purgen plant will use 2.55 million tons of coal per year
The Purgen One plant will use an estimated 2.55 million tons of coal
per year. (Purgen Air Permit, pg. 9, says the Purgen will use 7000
tons of coal per day; 7000*365=2.55 million.) Over a 50-year lifetime,
the plant would use 178 million tons of coal.
The coal plant will emit 5 million pounds of toxic air contaminants
each year
Table 3-2 on pg. 296 of the Purgen Permit Application spells out the
plant's annual air emissions as follows:
NOx: 383.4 tons
Carbon monoxide: 641.5 tons
SO2: 286.9 tons
H2SO4: 28.1 tons
Particulate matter 2.5: 135.3 tons
Ammonia (NH3): 1110.4 tons
Volatile organics: 57 tons
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs): 16.1 tons
Total: 2659 tons (5.3 million pounds)
Solid waste: The coal plant will release 55 million pounds of toxic
elements (defined below) in solid waste.
Table 1: Amounts of trace elements in 128 million tons of typical
bituminous coal. Source of information about concentrations of the
elements: National Bureau of Standards, Certificate of Analysis,
Standard Reference Material 1632a Trace Elements in Coal
(Bituminous). Dated January 23, 1978.
Daily coal use: 7,000 tons
Annual coal use: 2,555,000 tons
Lifetime coal use (during 50 years): 127,750,000 tons
*Arsenic 1,188 tons
*Cadmium 22
*Chromium 4,395
*Copper 2,108
*Lead 1,584
*Manganese 3,577
Mercury 17
*Nickel 2,478
*Selenium 332
Sodium 107,310
*Thorium 575
Uranium 164
Vanadium 5,621
*Zinc 3,577
Calcium 293,825
Iron 1,418,025
Potassium 536,550
Sulfur 2,018,450
Antimony 77
Cerium 3,833
Cesium 307
Cobalt 869
Europium 64
Gallium 1,086
Hafnium 204
Rubidium 3,960
Scandium 805
Aluminum 3,960,250
Magnesium 127,750
Titanium 229,950
Total: 8,728,953 tons
Trace element pct of total: 6.83
* indicates a toxic material.
Total of toxic materials: 19,836 tons (39,672,000 pounds)
Note that, if the lifetime of the coal plant were 70 years instead of
50 years, all the quantities released into the environment would have
to be multiplied by 1.4.
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The Purgen plant's fertlizer output and its ecological
consequences
See sources cited in Peter Montague, "The PurGen Fertilizer Factory
Proposed for Linden, N.J." New Brunswick, N.J.: Environmental
Research Foundation, March 15, 2010.
Union County Fails to Meet Current Air Standards
See sources cited (with links to original documents) in Peter
Montague, "Union County: Environmental Justice, Toxic Exposures and
Health" (New Brunswick, N.J.: Environmental Research Foundation, July
20, 2009).
Health in Union County, N.J. is Already Below-average
See sources cited (with links to original documents) in Peter
Montague, "Union County: Environmental Justice, Toxic Exposures and
Health" (New Brunswick, N.J.: Environmental Research Foundation, July
20, 2009).
Union County, N.J. has a high risk of cancer from air pollution
See sources cited (with links to original documents) in Peter
Montague, "Union County: Environmental Justice, Toxic Exposures and
Health" (New Brunswick, N.J.: Environmental Research Foundation, July
20, 2009).
Demographic data on the Population of Union County, N.J.
See sources cited (with links to original documents) in Peter
Montague, "Union County: Environmental Justice, Toxic Exposures and
Health" (New Brunswick, N.J.: Environmental Research Foundation, July
20, 2009).
Environmental justice issues in Union County, N.J.
See sources cited (with links to original documents) in Peter
Montague, "Union County: Environmental Justice, Toxic Exposures and
Health" (New Brunswick, N.J.: Environmental Research Foundation, July
20, 2009).
Linden was designated an "environmental justice" community in
2004
See sources cited (with links to original documents) in Peter
Montague, "Report of an EJ meeting at DEP," (New Brunswick, N.J.:
Environmental Research Foundation, June 4, 2009).
American Lung Association Estimates of Illness in Union County
See "Statement of Kevin M. Stewart, Director of Environmental Health,
American Lung Association of New Jersey," October 20, 2009. Available
here.
The coal industry is a major contributor to global warming
Information about the coal industry's contribution to global warming
(and the industry's other impacts, environmental and political) can be
found in Alice McKeown, "The Dirty Truth About Coal," San Francisco:
Sierra Club, 2007. And in Jeff Goodell, "Big Coal" (Boston and New
York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006).
There are viable alternatives to coal power plants
Some of the alternatives are discussed (with links to original
sources) in Peter Montague, "Alternatives to the Coal Plant in
Linden" (New Brunswick, N.J.: Environmental Research Foundation, June
15, 2009.
Renewable sources of energy now provide 11% of U.S.
electricity.
See http://www.precaution.org/lib/renewables_to_10pct_of_u.s._en
ergy.090720.htm
Carbon Burial Just Passes Our Problem on to Our Grandchildren
The formal name for this concern is "intergenerational equity" --
fairness between generations. See
http://www.globalepe.org/values_ie.html.
The Coal Plant Will Be Highly Automated, Creating Few Jobs
The Purgen One plant will employ 50 workers, 3 shifts per day, for a
total of 150 jobs. See: Bradley Campbell, "Presentation to City of
Linden, N.J. Planning Board," March 24, 2009.
A Wildlife Refuge Lies Just Downwind from the Coal Plant
See New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, "Pralls Island
Harbor Herons Preserve," (New York, N.Y.: New York City Department of
Parks & Recreation, Feb. 1, 2008.
If We Spend Our Money On Coal, We Can't Have Renewable Energy
Sequestering sufficient carbon dioxide to make a difference in the
global warming problem would be very expensive. Details:
1. The Linden plant intends to bury 10 million tons of CO2 each year
for at least 50 years, for a total of 500 million tons. According to
Forbes magazine (cited above), the plant will cost $6 billion.
2. A consultant to the coal plant, Daniel Schrag, estimates that we
may need to bury 2 trillion tons of CO2 (or more) in the ground, or
beneath the ocean, during this century. See Daniel Schrag, "Preparing
to Capture Carbon," Science Vol. 315 (2007), pg. 812.
Therefore we can calculate that, at the prices quoted for the Linden
coal plant, burying 2 trillion tons of CO2 will cost 2 trillion (tons)
/500 million (tons) = 4,000 projects * $6 billion (per project) = $24
trillion. Annual gross domestic product of the U.S. economy is about
$14 trillion, so $24 trillion is an enormous sum. The bank bailout
has, so far, cost about $2 trillion. Even if economies of scale could
cut the cost of carbon sequestration in half, $12 trillion is a
tremendous sum of money.
Furthermore, eventually we MUST switch to renewable energy. Coal
reserves are not as abundant as we once thought. Therefore, sooner
or later, scarcity will drive the price of coal beyond reach. At that
point, we'll have no choice but to develop renewable sources of
energy. Why not spend the $12 to $24 trillion on renewables now and
skip the expensive carbon-burial phase?
The point carbon-burial is to help the coal industry survive
The future of the coal industry has been wagered on carbon capture
and sequestration. If this experimental technology cannot be deployed
at commercial scale within 20 years, the future of the coal industry
is a black hole. Without CCS, expansion of the coal industry is
extremely unlikely, and when the present generation of power plants is
retired, coal is dead.
Source of information for "no new coal plants started in 2009 and
2010," and for the quotation, "Coal is a dead man walking": Steven
Mufson, "For a variety of reasons, constructing coal-fired power
plants at a standstill." Boston Globe Jan. 4, 2011.
Renewable Energy is Real and Available Today
Alternatives to the Linden coal plant are very real. A carbon-free,
nuclear-free energy future is available now, if we will make it a
national priority. See text, and links to original sources, in Peter
Montague, "Alternatives to the Coal Plant in Linden" (New Brunswick,
N.J.: Environmental Research Foundation June 15, 2009). And see the
next section, "The PurGen One coal plant is not needed."
The PurGen One coal plant is not needed
A 2004 study by the Rutgers University Center for Energy, Economic,
and Environmental Policy, titled, "New Jersey Energy Efficiency and
Distributed Generation Market Assessment" concluded that economically
feasible energy efficiency programs could eliminate the need for 4,186
megawatts of installed electric generating capacity between now and
2020. In other words, in New Jersey alone, energy efficiency could
eliminate the need for eight power plants the size of the Purgen One
plant between now and 2020. Purgen One, with all its egregious
pollution, is simply not needed.
Christina L. Archer and Mark Z. Jacobson, "Evaluation of Global Wind
Power," Journal of Geophysical Research Vol. 110 (2005), pgs. 1-20.
Willett Kempton and others, "Large CO2 reductions via offshore wind
power matched to inherent storage in energy end-uses," Geophysical
Research Letters Vol. 34 (2007), pgs. 1-5.
Mark Z. Jacobson and Mark A. Delucchi, "A Path to Sustainable Energy
by 2030," Scientific American (Nov., 2009), pgs. 58-65.
Willett Kempton and others, "Electric power from offshore wind via
synoptic-scale interconnection." Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences Vol. 107, No. 16 (April 20, 2010), pgs. 7240-7245.
Vasilis Fthenakis and others, "The technical, geographical, and
economic feasibility for solar energy to supply the energy needs of
the US," Energy Policy Vol. 37 (2009), pgs. 387-399.
Benjamin K. Sovacool and Charmaine Watts, "Going Completely Renewable:
Is It Possible (Let Alone Desirable)?" The Electricity Journal Vol.
22, No. 4 (May 2009), pgs. 95-111.
David B. Goldstein, Invisible Energy (Point Richmond, Calif: Bay Tree
Publishing, 2010). Goldstein is a McArthur "genius" award recipient
who works for Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Benjamin K. Sovacool, The Dirty Energy Dilemma: What's Blocking Clean
Power in the United States. (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2008).
Earthquakes occur every year or two in North Jersey
See http://www.precaution.org/lib/nj_quakes.091002.htm
Political Power Resides in the Hands of a Few...
See, for example, see Michael Zweig, The Working Class Majority:
America's Best Kept Secret (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,
2000).