To Till and to Tend

Dozens of residents in the area surrounding the Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee celebrated the holidays away from home last week, after they received a giant lump of coal in their stockings on the days before Christmas. Literally. A mass of sludge called coal fly ash, a by-product of coal-fired electricity production, covered at least 15 houses with over one billion gallons of water and sludge containing dangerous levels of lead, chromium, nickel and arsenic. Though government authorities are downplaying the health risks of the spill, many are concerned about the similar piles of waste found near hundreds of coal plants- and hundreds of homes, schools, and business- around the nation.

The disaster in Tennessee is yet another reminder of the reality that there is no such thing as ‘clean coal,’ despite the coal industry’s clever attempts to convince us that their product is clean and friendly. Ironically, fly ash results in part from emissions restrictions laws; rather than cleaning up their act in response to court rulings limiting the pollutants they can release into the atmosphere, coal-fired power producers decided to force their pollutants into the earth. Clearly, this is not a sustainable solution.

The ‘spill’ in Tennessee was not the only action on the fossil fuel front this holiday season. On the same day as the fly ash mess, the EPA released new statistics showing that nearly 50 cities in 25 states failed to meet federal standards for fine-particle pollution this year. 15 new geographic areas were added since the list of ‘nonattainment areas’ was last published in 2004. While some cities and regions have had success in cleaning their air, over 100 million Americans still breathe dangerously dirty air as a result of the diesel-burning trucks, fossil fuel plants and wood-burning stoves that power our country with anachronistic technology.

The year-end news wasn’t all bad. In an encouraging turn of events, a D.C. district court recently ruled to continue the enforcement of the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which limits pollutants from coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act. The rule is an attempt to decrease nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions, which increase smog pollution and endanger public health. With recent court rulings on carbon dioxide emissions, there is a good chance that the next Administration and Congress will take meaningful action to clean up our coal industry.

These stories, read together, paint a clear picture; Rather than try to ‘green’ one of our oldest and grayest energy sources, our nation and our political and entrepreneurial leaders must focus on transitioning to truly clean, green sources like solar, wind, and geothermal energy. While regulations like the Clean Air Interstate Rule may be a small step in a positive direction, we will never achieve a sustainable society when we get the majority of our national electricity supply from coal. Here’s to hoping that by next holiday season we will have begun to truly Repower, Refuel, and Rebuild America.

Rachel is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant working on environment and energy issues at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, DC. She will be a regular guest blogger on To Till and To Tend this year, posting entries every other Thursday. This, and all of Rachel’s entries, can also be found on the Religious Action Center blog.