[BabyPeanut]

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timeslea ... 834835.htm

Coal recouped

A state-of-the-art power plant is reclaiming the waste heaps that pollute Pennsylvania streams. As an "alternative" energy, it is controversial.

By Tom Avril

Inquirer Staff Writer

NEW FLORENCE, Pa. - Pennsylvania is littered with vast, abandoned piles of "boney" - a mixture of coal, rock and clay that chokes the life out of creeks and streams, turning them a sickly shade of yellowish-orange.

This legacy of a century of mining - more than a billion tons, by one estimate - was left behind because it wasn't worth burning to make electricity.

Not anymore.

On the banks of the Conemaugh River here, Houston-based Reliant Energy has built the Seward Power Plant, a high-tech facility specially designed to burn this "waste coal." At 521 megawatts, it is the largest such plant in the world, consuming 11,000 tons of waste coal every day.

"It's the worst of the worst fuel," said Richard Imler, general manager of the plant, which began full operation in October.

Because such plants get rid of an environmental problem, they qualify as a type of "alternative" energy under a new state law requiring that by 2020, 18 percent of electricity sold in the state must come from such sources. (See box.)

Some environmentalists were aghast that the word "coal" appeared in the same legislation with solar panels, windmills and other sources considered more eco-friendly. That's because waste-coal plants, though they get rid of a source of water pollution, still pollute the air.

Others were willing to compromise, given that coal mining has long been a pillar of the state's very identity. John Hanger, president of the Harrisburg-based nonprofit PennFuture, said waste coal is a political reality:

"There wasn't going to be a [bill] passed in Pennsylvania without it."

[JayHMorrison]

I found the article also. Don't you just love the list of power sources? They include fuel cells as a "source" of power. This is now Pennsylvania law. We have a long way to go.

Waste Coal on Eco-friendly List

A new Pennsylvania law requires that by 2020, 18 percent of the electricity sold in the state come from renewable or environmentally beneficial sources. Eight percent must come from "tier one" sources - those that are traditionally thought of as renewable - and 10 percent from "tier two." For example:

Tier One

Solar photovoltaic energy

Wind power

Low-impact hydropower

Geothermal energy

Biologically derived methane gas

Fuel cells

Coal-bed methane

Tier Two

Waste coal

Energy efficiency measures

Large-scale hydropower

Trash incinerators

Byproducts of pulping and wood manufacturing processes

Coal gasification

[frankthetank]

A person has to love trash incinerators. I prefer burning mine in open barrels. not