Martin lake coal plant and others like it must cleanup or shutdown | Fix

<h1>Coal’s holdovers must shut down or clean up</h1>
 
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<a href="https://twitter.com/maryannehitt" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mary Anne Hitt</a> will join the staff of Energy Innovation in May after more than a decade at the Sierra Club; she is also a public voices fellow of the OpEd Project and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. <a href="https://twitter.com/RevYearwood" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rev Lennox Yearwood Jr.</a> is the president and founder of Hip Hop Caucus, a minister, community activist, and U.S. Air Force veteran.

Drive two hours east of Dallas, or about an hour west from Shreveport, Louisiana, and you’ll find yourself on the doorstep of one of the biggest polluters in America. The Martin Lake coal plant, owned by Vistra, ranks No. 1 for toxic mercury emissions and No. 3 for deadly sulfur dioxide pollution among <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/texas/blog/2020/10/vistra-continues-operate-martin-lake-coal-plant-top-sulfur-and-mercury-polluter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">all U.S. power plants</a>. Year after year, it continues to pollute while also pumping millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to the climate crisis.

The plant was built in the late 1970s and chugs along four decades later without scrubbers, a baghouse, or selective catalytic reduction technology — modern technologies that mitigate pollution — and <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/texas/blog/2020/04/sierra-club-files-legal-action-force-environmental-protection-agency-address" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">continues to</a> violate EPA public health standards. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/mercury/health-effects-exposures-mercury" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mercury</a> from smokestacks rains down and into waterways and can contaminate fish and wildlife. Most concerning, it can cause birth defects when ingested by pregnant women, which can leave children with lifelong developmental delays and cognitive challenges. Sulfur dioxide is <a href="https://www.epa.gov/so2-pollution/sulfur-dioxide-basics#effects" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">notorious for triggering</a> wheezing and difficulty breathing, especially in children with asthma.

Martin Lake is one of dozens of coal plants running without essential pollution control technology, representing 80 percent of the nation’s <a href="https://coal.sierraclub.org/campaign" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">remaining 191 coal plants</a>. Most have no intention of winding down or cleaning up: A recent <a href="https://coal.sierraclub.org/the-problem/dirty-truth-greenwashing-utilities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report by the Sierra Club</a> and climate policy expert (and 2020 <a href="https://grist.org/fix/about-grist50/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Grist 50</a> honoree) <a href="https://grist.org/grist-50/2020/#leah-stokes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Leah Stokes</a> found that utilities plan to hang onto three-quarters of their coal plants beyond the end of this decade, jeopardizing our health, communities, and climate with every passing year.

That’s why the Biden administration must take three key actions now: Restore and enforce pollution standards for the nation’s remaining coal plants; accelerate our shift to 100 percent clean energy; and support a robust economic transition for coal communities.

We are climate justice leaders who have had a front row seat to the heroic efforts by grassroots advocates from more than 300 organizations — including the <a href="https://coal.sierraclub.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign</a>, which Mary Anne led for a decade — to move our country beyond coal toward clean, reliable renewable energy. In the last 12 years, these organizations successfully led campaigns to retire 339 coal plants. But the remaining plants continue to threaten the health and lives of people across the nation, as well as our climate. (Rev has a particular interest in Martin Lake: He grew up in its shadow in Shreveport). Market forces alone aren’t going to bring affected communities clean air and water.

<figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/fix/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/04/martin-lake-coal-plant-e1619016947410.png" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/fix/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/04/martin-lake-coal-plant-e1619016947410.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1 150w, https://grist.org/fix/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/04/martin-lake-coal-plant-e1619016947410.png?w=300 300w, https://grist.org/fix/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/04/martin-lake-coal-plant-e1619016947410.png?w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/fix/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/04/martin-lake-coal-plant-e1619016947410.png?w=1024 1024w, https://grist.org/fix/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/04/martin-lake-coal-plant-e1619016947410.png 1024w" alt="Martin Lake coal plant emissions graph" data-caption="" data-credit="Courtesy of Sierra Club"/><figcaption><cite>Courtesy of Sierra Club</cite></figcaption></div></figure>

On the outskirts of St. Louis, Ameren’s Labadie coal plant is the largest in the U.S. operating <a href="https://revealnews.org/article/what-scott-pruitts-been-doing-while-you-werent-looking/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">without a scrubber</a>, the essential pollution control for sulfur dioxide. The plant affects the entire <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/stlouiscitymissouricounty" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">population</a> of the city, which is 45 percent Black; Black children visit emergency rooms for asthma roughly <a href="https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/mayor/initiatives/resilience/equity/documents/equity-indicators-baseline-report.cfm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10 times more</a> frequently each year than white children, owing <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6367937/2097-STL-EnvirRacism-Report-04-Web.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">to decades of systemic racism</a> that have left Black families more exposed to pollution and without equal access to housing and healthcare. The sulfur dioxide from Labadie is a <a href="https://www.tollfromcoal.org/#/map/(title:2103//detail:2103//map:2103/MO)" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">major trigger</a> of health emergencies.

Even communities hundreds of miles downwind — that’s how far air pollution can travel — needlessly face a higher risk of asthma, heart attacks, and strokes, all of which <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/air-pollution-linked-with-higher-covid-19-death-rates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">increase the risk</a> of severe complications from COVID, further exacerbating racial health disparities.

Beyond being more polluting, these coal plants are <a href="https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Coal-Cost-Crossover_Energy-Innovation_VCE_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more expensive than renewable energy</a>, and we have the technology needed to keep the lights on without them. As the recent <a href="https://grist.org/fix/energy-experts-us-electric-grid-resiliency/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Texas blackouts made clear</a>, aging fossil fuel plants are no longer sufficient to keep the power flowing to homes and communities as climate change delivers increasingly extreme weather to our doorsteps.

Coal plant owners <a href="https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/09/27/a-closer-look-at-whether-millions-of-dollars-in-texas-epa-lawsuits-are-a-bargain/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">spend millions on litigation</a> and lobbying against clean air and water standards. Meanwhile, the owners and operators of the coal mines that feed these plants are <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90381145/coal-companies-are-going-bankrupt-what-happens-to-the-pensions-theyve-promised-miners" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trying to abandon</a> their promises to workers of pensions and healthcare as their companies slide further into financial trouble and sometimes bankruptcy. These polluters must be held accountable to the communities they’ve damaged and the workers they’re trying to leave behind.

First, the Biden administration must restore and strengthen the clean air and water standards for coal plants that the Trump administration rolled back. It needs to reinstate and enforce <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2021/climate-environment/biden-climate-environment-actions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gutted EPA safeguards</a> like standards for mercury pollution, sulfur dioxide emissions, smog, coal ash disposal, and toxic water discharges.

Second, the administration should support an economic transition with <a href="https://www.arc.gov/arcs-power-initiative/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">federal grants and loans</a> for coal communities in states like West Virginia so that workers can pursue new economic opportunities without having to move from their homes. Biden should also push Congress to pass bills like the <a href="https://reclaimact.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">RECLAIM Act</a>, which commits $1 billion to put people to work cleaning up and retiring dangerous and polluting abandoned coal mines.

Finally, the administration needs to accelerate our transition to clean energy and make sure places historically burdened by pollution fully <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-bidens-environmental-justice-order-might-work/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">benefit </a>by <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/biden-aims-billions-of-dollars-at-environmental-inequity-fight" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">targeting investments</a> to those communities and ensuring that residents <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/creating-equity-energy-people-color" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">participate</a> in decision making. We’re already getting more power from renewable energy than from coal — we passed that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/03/renewables-surpass-coal-us-energy-generation-130-years" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">milestone in 2020</a> — and renewables are now <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/10/23/its-cheaper-to-build-new-solar-than-it-is-to-operate-coal-plants/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cheaper than coal</a> across the country. A centerpiece of Biden’s climate plan is a 100 percent clean energy standard, and it has <a href="https://www.vox.com/22265119/biden-climate-change-renewable-energy-clean-electricity-standard-congress" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">massive public support</a>.

We’re already well on our way: One-third of Americans live in a city or state that has made <a href="https://t.co/vqIIXjBqah?amp=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a commitment</a> to 100 percent clean energy, including Virginia, New Mexico, and Washington, and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-03-24/los-angeles-now-has-a-roadmap-for-100-renewable-energy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">some places</a> are well on their way to achieving it.

As we work together to tackle the <a href="https://grist.org/fix/combatting-climate-change-covid-19-and-systemic-injustice-on-the-same-front/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">intertwined crises</a> of COVID, climate change, racial injustice, and our fragile economy, there’s simply no more room for these expensive coal plants in our energy mix. It’s time to move on.

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This article originally appeared in <a href="https://grist.org/">Grist</a> at <a href="https://grist.org/fix/opinion/coal-plant-holdovers-pollution-biden-administration/">https://grist.org/fix/opinion/coal-plant-holdovers-pollution-biden-administration/</a>.
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