By Ann Drumm, Dallas Sierra Club
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-546818.mp3
Dallas, TX –
The attraction of coal for power generation is that it's cheap and plentiful. But coal only seems cheap because the real costs of burning this fuel are left out of the price we pay for electricity.
Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel around. The coal plants proposed for Texas would emit more air pollution when we're already struggling to meet air quality standards, worsening smog and respiratory problems. According to the advocacy groups SEED Coalition and Public Citizen, the new plants would contribute the same amount of global warming gases as 20 million more cars. And each year they would emit two more tons of mercury, a neurotoxin that affects our children's brain development.
But the cost of that damage doesn't show up on our electric bills. Your price per kilowatt hour doesn't cover the cost of treating asthmatic kids at the emergency room, compensating communities ravaged by mountaintop removal coal mining, or dealing with the damage caused by climate disruption.
There is a way forward that will promote economic prosperity and protect public health. There are some very smart people showing us the way, and some of them expect to create a lot of jobs and make a lot of money in the process.
We must make smarter use of what we're already generating. Energy efficiency is catching on because it saves money, but it also helps address air pollution and global warming. For example, compact fluorescent light bulbs use 25 percent of the electricity of an ordinary bulb to produce the same amount of light. I've just had an energy audit that shows how an investment in efficiency can reduce my energy use by 38 percent, and the investment will pay for itself through lower utility bills.
The City of Dallas gets it. The city's new Jack Evans Police Headquarters is built to high standards of energy efficiency, saving the city some $250,000 each year in electricity costs. The council has decided that every new city-owned building over 10,000 square feet will be built to this same high efficiency standard.
Mayors all around the country get it. 330 mayors have pledged to make their city operations more energy-efficient. The mayors of Arlington, Dallas, Denton, Euless, Frisco, Hurst, McKinney and Richardson have joined this movement.
Business leaders get it. Texas Instruments' new chip fabrication plant in Richardson is a model of energy-efficient manufacturing that has kept jobs in North Texas. And Wal-Mart realized that if it changed the light bulbs in its ceiling fan displays alone, it would save $6 million each year in electricity costs.
Utilities hope to profit by building coal plants before legislation limiting greenhouse gas emissions is passed, so they're pushing for coal plant permits all around the country. But the dirty technology of the past is not the way of the future. We owe it to our kids to meet our energy needs through an aggressive commitment to efficiency, clean fuels and clean technologies.
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman says it well: "Focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation is not some girlie-man issue," he says. "It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. Green is the new red, white and blue."
Ann Drumm is chair of the Dallas Sierra Club.
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