Environmental Research Foundation, March 21, 2010
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 this PDF document.
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.
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. The plant will cost $6 billion. [cite forbes here]
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.
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).
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, 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.
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).