Over the Cliffside

FOR THE RECORD

No more old-style coal plants

Before long we'll need to bulldoze power plants that don't capture CO{-2}. That's the opinion of scientist James Hansen in a letter to the N.C. Division of Air Quality regarding Duke Energy's permit to build a new coal-fired unit at Cliffside Power Plant in Rutherford County:

For the sake of identification, I am director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, Adjunct Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, and head one of the major units of the Columbia Earth Institute.

I express my opinions here as a private citizen, based on my four decades of experience in research on the climate of the Earth and other planets. I am a member of the National Academy of Sciences, have advised the vice president and his task force on energy and climate (including six Cabinet members) on two occasions, and have received numerous awards for my research on climate change.

I am writing because scientific evidence and understanding about global climate change have advanced rapidly in just the past several years. Indeed, progress has been sufficiently rapid that there exists a gap between what is understood by the relevant scientific community and what is known by those who most need to know, the public and policy makers. The information is particularly relevant to those who are considering the use of coal for power plants, specifically with regard to the way in which coal will need to be used if we wish to avoid creating a dangerous situation in the near future and especially during the lives of our children and grandchildren.

During the past several years it has become clear that the Earth's climate is nearing important tipping points. Recent global warming has brought the system to a level where only moderate additional climate forcing is needed to cause large climate effects, including loss of all Arctic sea ice, destabilization of ice sheets and thus global sea level rise, and extermination of many species, as well as intensification of regional extremes of the hydrologic cycle, specifically more intense droughts and fires in subtropical areas such the American West, the Mediterranean region including the Middle East, Australia and parts of Africa, and yet, when precipitation occurs, it will tend to occur in heavier downpours, thus increasing the frequency of floods, and storms driven by latent heat will tend to be stronger....

The upshot is that the scientific community realizes that we are much closer to the dangerous level of atmospheric greenhouse gases than would have been estimated even 3-5 years ago. In turn the implication is that humanity must find some way to stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide at a level of, at most, 450 parts per million, and perhaps even significantly less. Based on the amounts of carbon in the different fossil fuels, coal being the largest, an inevitable conclusion is that coal use must be phased out over the next few decades except at truly clean coal power plants that capture and store the carbon dioxide.

In blunter language, it has become clear that in order to avoid creating a different planet with disastrous consequences for humanity and other species, over the next few decades we will need to "bulldoze" old-style power plants that do not capture and store CO{-2}.

Although the legal issues are outside my expertise, officials making decisions about power plants should be expected to be aware of the implications of climate change for fossil fuel use. It seems unlikely that the public should be held responsible for investments made in new coal-fired power plants, which are surely imprudent if the power plants do not capture and store the CO{-2}.

Hansen speaks here tonight

James Hansen, with Raleigh "green" architect Mike Nicklas, will speak at Queens University's Dana Auditorium at 7 p.m. today. The event is free and open to the public.

Friday, November 16 - 7pm
Queens University of Charlotte, NC
RSVP at Clean Air Coalition

Saturday, November 17 - 3pm
The Friday Center - Chapel Hill, NC
RSVP at NC Warn