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To the editor:
A Jun 16, 2023 Salena Zito column said: "Between 2010 and May 2019, 290 coal power plants, or 40% of the U.S. coal-generating capacity, closed permanently.." while a 2022 report stated: "China is on track to build 43 coal-fired power plants and 18 blast furnaces powered by coal over the next few years to support the country's economic expansion." I suppose so that they can sell us more solar panels, inverters and wind turbines so we can be "Carbon Free".
Here in Minnesota we're on track to build new power lines to bring wind turbine and solar power to the metro area in order to shut down the big Sherco coal-fired power plant in Becker.
Why?
1. So we can slow down "Global Warming".
2. So we can have "Clean Air".
Our global system effecting climate is composed of five subsystems: the atmosphere, cryosphere (frozen parts), hydrosphere (water in oceans, land, and atmosphere), biosphere, and the lithosphere (crust, mantle, and core). Understanding how these interact is a challenge when systems are not always stable or completely understood. Carbon dioxide only amounts to 0.04% of the atmosphere. Man's carbon dioxide amounts to about 0.0016% of the atmosphere. Contrast this with the oceans, they hold 50 times as much carbon as the atmosphere and have a 40,000-mile-long volcanically active mid-ocean mountain chain belching carbon dioxide, sulfur, and lots of heat. I've yet to see anyone explain how Minnesota's micro-contribution to atmospheric CO2 is going to have any effect on global warming.
You're never going to have squeaky-clean air. The U.S. averages about 68,000 wildfires per year , according to NOAA. Volcanoes annually emit up to 25 million tons of sulfur dioxide. How is it that today we can survive being blanketed in Canadian wildfire smoke, but then call coal-fired power plants "death factories" while their scrubbers are so efficient at removing sulfates and other pollutants that they actually contribute to global warming? The reduction of power-plant sulfates into the atmosphere is causing less sunlight to be reflected back into space, thereby adding to our heat build-up. (see my 8-21-2022 letter).
Phil Drietz
Delhi