It is easy to criticise the current round of climate negotiations in Copenhagen and the climate bill discussions in Washington. Making sausage ain't easy.
But I think that it is important to understand that these talks have already had an impact on many large-scale emitters of pollution and greenhouse gases.
And I present as evidence a single coal-fired power plant run by DTE Energy in my southeastern Michigan hometown of Monroe, Michigan.
DTE's Monroe generating facility is an industrial behemoth. At full capacity, the power plant generates roughly 3,300 megawatts. This makes it the fourth largest coal-fired power plant in the nation. The plant generated 20.6 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2007, making it the seventh dirtiest plant in the nation. It ranks fifth in the nation in terms of coal waste creation.
Monroe Power Plant Stats: Wikipedia
Honestly, the plant makes my soul ache. It occupies lands at the mouth of the River Raisin as it enters Lake Erie. A closed Ford plant sits on the other side of the river mouth. This means that I have never visited the location at which the two great bodies of water in my life meet.
And, in fact, the plant uses so much water to generate electricity that except during periods of high water, the entire flow of the River Raisin is processed through the plant. The river actually begins to flow backwards from Lake Erie at its mouth.
Quote from MI DNR River Raisin Assessment
The impact of this and other plants is terrible. The two plant towers are 800 feet tall. This means that one is pretty much never out of view of these coal burners. And for the first 30+ years of my life, I watched a brown streak cut across the sky from the plant.
All along the shore, one finds contaminated disposal facilities. These are diked and fenced shoreline areas which hold contaminated dredge material from the shipping channels in my area. The channels need to be dredged so that DTE can float its coal freighters to the plant. The dredge material needs to be buried away from public access because pollution from the DTE plant and other industrial and municipal sources lands on the lake and concentrates in the bottom muck. It is hazardous material. The contaminated bottom muck moves up the food chain into fish which results in consumption advisories for area residents.
The shoreline also contains many coal ash disposal facilities. As mentioned earlier, the plant is the fifth largest creator of coal ash waste in the country. These disposal facilities block lake access and pose no small risk to the surrounding environment. Birds and other wildlife have access to these areas. And these disposal facilities do leak occasionally. If one of these facilities ever failed, it would be a disaster for western Lake Erie. Of course, these facilities already are.
The DTE plant warms the surrounding water to such a degree that the lake and rivermouth remain open during even the coldest months of the year. This causes hundreds of bald eagles to congregate at the site. It is an amazing experience to see this many eagles in one place. However, one wonders whether this congregation is necessarily good for the eagles and the local ecosystem.
Eagle Pics: Monroe Power Plant
And, of course, western Lake Erie is subject to massive power plant fish kills, major algae blooms and other disruptions that result from its industrial past and present.
For many years, DTE was able to run this plant with minimal criticism because it created jobs and it was just an accepted fact of life that people needed power and burning coal was the way to go. We sacrificed the local environment for very immediate economic gains.
But one cannot operate a plant like DTE's Monroe facility without becoming a target.
In 2008, a group of Canadian activists sued DTE in Canadian courts for violating Canadian fisheries law because of pollution from two plants that it operates on the U.S. side of the international border along the St. Clair River.
DTE Faces Canadian Lawsuit
Well, the Monroe plant also sits along the edge of the United States and depending on which way the winds blow, massive amounts of pollutants enter Canadian waters and air from the Monroe facility. That is a large legal liability that DTE must deal with in the future.
And there is precedent for this legal liability in the United States. Just remember the tobacco settlement and the billions of dollars that those industries were forced to pay as a result of years of environmental and health obfuscation.
And, of course, the possibility of future carbon regulation has caused the bean-counters at DTE to reassess the long-term viability of coal power generation.
The result is that DTE has been spending billions to retrofit the Monroe Plant. A new 580 foot tower was constructed that removes a significant percentage of the sulfer dioxide and nitrogen oxide and mercury from plant emissions. So far, these efforts have cost the company - and ratepayers - $1.7 billion. These pollutants are still generated on a massive scale, but it is definitely an improvement.
New Tower/Scrubber for Monroe Plant
And it has just been announced that DTE will spend an additional $600 million on new scrubbers and catalytic converters at the plant.
$600 Million Retrofit
And, while nuclear power is anathema to many environmental activists, DTE has been pushing forward with the permitting process for an additional power unit roughly ten miles north of its Monroe coal burner. Perhaps this nuclear facility could replace some of DTE's coal burning portolio.
Fermi III Permitting Process Begins
Only the most naive of people would believe that DTE is constructing these pollution reduction projects out of the goodness of their heart. The reason why these improvements are happening is because of pressure from activists, the potential for future legal liability and the threat of increased regulation from Washington and Copenhagen.
So, while I have been critical of some aspects of the climate bill and treaty negotiations, I can see with my own eyes the positive impacts of these efforts. Our air is now cleaner. And there is promise of future improvements.
Keep up the good work.