Problems with Coal-Based Electricity Generation

The Big Stone II Coal Fired Power Plant Project met it's demise this week in NE South Dakota. On the one hand I 'm not sorry to see it shot down. On the other in the process of building another Power plant they were supposed to clean up the plant already on line.
Ottertail Power Company announced that they would abandoned the project this week.

The following is a blurp on coal from another site.

Courtesy of http://www.grinningplanet.com,
Thanks,
Guys

Beyond the environmental problems with coal mining, burning coal to generate electricity is notoriously dirty. While great improvements have been made over the years in air-pollution-control technologies for coal plants, many old, fume-belching plants remain online. Despite industry proclamations of the wonders of "clean coal" technology—coal-gasification combined cycle (CGCC) power plants are indeed a quantum leap from plants with even state-of-the-art emissions scrubbers—almost none of the coal plants currently under construction or on the drawing boards around the world are this super-clean type.


Even if you give the coal industry and its political allies the benefit of the doubt and assume a wholesale move to clean coal-burning technology, that would still leave the intractable issue of the pollution and environmental damage caused by coal mining. There are no easy solutions for that problem, and increasing the demand for coal will also increase the environmental problems associated with coal mining.

Sustainability Works in Rural Mid-West Town

Imagine A whole town living off the grid. This is the Sci Fi stuff you see on TV. Maybe an episode from Eureka or something. Think again!
There is a small mid-west town in NW Missouri doing just that. Welcome to Rockport MO. This little town in wired to 4 wind turbines in the area. The excess is sold back to the electric company. No fossil fuels no nuclear waste . . . just wind power. The local farmers get income from the leases and local workers maintaining the towers and turbines make a living in small town America. It is a win-win situation.

Jim Crawford of the University of Missouri extension office says,

“We’re farming the wind, which is something that we have up here,” Crawford said. “The payback on a per-acre basis is generally quite good when compared to a lot of other crops, and it’s as simple as getting a cup of coffee and watching the blades spin…Anybody who is currently using Rock Port utilities can expect no increase in rates for the next 15 to 20 years…”

Take a look for yourself. The title to this post is a link to another article about this phenomena.