Claiming that a new coal-fired power plant would be an advanced-energy project because it uses a new kind of scrubber - a device that prevents some pollutants from entering the atmosphere - seems preposterous. It becomes especially absurd when state money set aside for advanced-energy projects could be loaned toward the construction of this coal-fired power plant.
American Municipal Power plans to build a coal-fired power plant in Meigs County, the southern neighbor to Athens County which also borders the Ohio River and West Virginia. It applied for a state loan of $30 million, according to The Columbus Dispatch, citing the scrubbers as advanced.
Merriam-Webster has a few definitions for advanced. They include: far on in time or course; being beyond others in progress or ideas; being beyond the elementary or introductory; greatly developed beyond an initial stage; and evolved from an early ancestral type.
My favorite in that bunch is greatly developed beyond an initial stage because that best describes advanced when it comes to mind - if something is going to be advanced, it must have changed significantly from what its original form.
The term advanced energy would mean something greatly has developed how energy is attained for human consumption. This brings to mind solar and wind power, modes of harnessing energy that are an evolution from coal-fired power plants because they have moved beyond using coal.
Yet, somehow, building a coal-fired power plant with better scrubbers - a power plant that still utilizes coal, still requires coal to be mined, still releases pollutants and toxins into the atmosphere, still sticks around for 30 to 40 years - is the equivalent of energy advancement.
For older power plants, this case holds more water. Adding scrubbers to power plants that already exist is a measure to prevent further damage. The power plants are already built, and we are a nation dependent on coal for the majority of our energy supply. Eighty-seven percent of Ohio's electricity comes from burning coal; that's a very high number to replace with sustainable energy right off the bat.
But that's what advanced-energy projects would be essential for - to wean states off coal dependence and onto more sustainable energy sources. More efficient scrubbers don't accomplish this task; they prolong the use of energy that is not advanced, not sustainable and not beneficial to the people or the planet affected by the pollution from these plants.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, there are already at least 18 other coal-fired power plants along the Ohio River. Adding one more is not a step toward any kind of energy-advancement. Neither is loaning out state money to AMP on the pretense that making scrubbers more efficient at capturing pollutants qualifies as advancement, especially when this power plant has the potential to emit 2.3 million pounds of toxic pollutants like mercury and hydrochloric and sulfuric acids every year.
While debating the meaning of the word advanced might seem like a game of semantics, the core of this issue is older technologies are being tweaked and expect praise and state funds without significantly changing or improving how energy is attained or produced. There needs to be an incentive for actual advanced-energy projects, and maintaining the status quo isn't one of them.
Cathy Wilson is a senior studying journalism and a copy editor for The Post. Send her an e-mail at cw224805@ohiou.edu.
4 Opinion
Cathy Wilson
