Apparently Texas has plans to open 19 new coal-fired electrical facilities over the next few years.
Just learning that was enough to surprise me.
Ontario is at least trying to phase out coal. The government is having trouble staying on target with the timing they originally (and somewhat uninformedly, according to lots of air quality management people I've spoken to) promised - but they have at least recognized that the health impacts of the pollutants that spew out of the stacks are significant. One plant has been closed already (the Lakeview plant). Five to go.
So I couldn't quite believe that there are still jurisdictions in North America that want to build new coal-fired facilities. The most I can hope for out of this is that this means they're closing some older plants, since the new ones are likely required to meet higher emissions and technology standards than any existing ones.
It might not matter though. A report from last week says that the new plants could cause as many as 240 additional deaths each year and as many as 12,000 over the plants' expected 50-year lifespan.
C'mon Texas. Are you gonna take that?
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BC is planning on building new coal plants too. :-( We currently don't have any and ship our coal to China (BC has a lot apparently), but they have decided that we should use it ourselves. there is technology available to burn coal cleanly. But that's not what they are planning to use here, because, of course, it's too expensive. It's too bad.
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