Efficient coal plants are green.

• Author: Farnham, Douglas B.
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

Editor:

I loved the "Cold Shoulder for Coal" article in the April issue. Or should I say the inconvenient truth about coal energy?

Coal has powered our nation and the world for the last 100 years and it will continue to do so. For the past 30 years, the more than 1,100 coal-fired power plants in the United States have had to comply with a new set of environmental standards. Acid rain is gone, mercury is captured and both SO and NO emissions meet new environmental standards.

Stopping the development of new high efficiency, coal-fired power plants as discussed in your story actually adds to the C[O.sub.2] produced because we have to rely on older, less efficient plants.

If you double energy efficiency, you create half of the C[O.sub.2], and everyone saves money in the long term. Why are our power houses operating on 50-year-old technology? Why do we have the lowest fuel efficiency standards on automobiles in the world? Why don't we have more public transportation? Why don't we have higher efficiency standards on commercial and residential buildings?

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Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has taken a sensible approach...