Twisted analogy doesn’t make coal plant right
By KEN MIDKIFF
Published Friday, November 16, 2007 (http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2007/nov/20071116comm003.asp)

Equating emissions of carbon dioxide with producing food is ludicrous. Equating a coal-burning power plant with farming makes little or no sense.

But that is exactly what one of the supporters of the proposed coal-burning power plant of the Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. (AECI) said. The Associated Press article, published in this paper Wednesday, quoted the AECI board member as saying, "There are those who contend we shouldn’t build any more fossil fuel plants. This would be similar to proclaiming that we are destroying our land by producing food, so we shouldn’t produce any more food."

For those not knowledgeable about this issue, a brief synopsis: AECI wants to build a 780-megawatt coal-burning power plant near Norborne, a small town in northwest Missouri. AECI supplies electricity to about 57 rural electric cooperatives throughout the state. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources already has issued a preliminary permit that allows AECI to begin construction.

There is a bit of irony in this proposal. AECI also is constructing several wind-energy generators in the same general area, and three of those wind turbines will be dedicated to producing electricity for Columbia.

But, back to the twisted analogy comparing energy to food.

There is little doubt that producing food has an effect on the environment. Some food production, such as pasture-fed beef, is almost benign. Other food production - that which relies heavily on herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers - has harmful effects, ranging from local to oceanic pollution. Still other types - concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) - have dire results locally, regionally, nationally and globally.

However, under no circumstances does food production - agriculture - threaten all life. But the emissions from coal-burning power plants do.

That is precisely where the analogy becomes twisted. No matter how smelly or devastating to local water bodies a CAFO is, it doesn’t contribute to melting polar caps, rising ocean levels or to an overall global temperature increase. Coal-burning power plants do by emitting tons and tons of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming gas.

There are better ways. It is totally possible, as AECI knows, to produce electricity - and lots of it - by non-polluting wind turbines. It is not energy or electricity that is the problem, rather it is how it is produced.

No one is saying that food production should be halted.

A large number of people are saying that emissions of global warming gases should be severely curtailed, and that means we must find other ways to meet our energy needs.

As usual, the elected officials serving Norborne and the surrounding area point to jobs and economic development. That sort of thinking is extremely short-sighted to the point of myopic.

The solution is simple: There are ways to produce energy that don’t heat up the planet and benefit the local economy on a long-term basis. The proposed coal-burning power plant of AECI does neither.